Jonathan Glazer Directs Holocaust Film

A24 has unveiled the ominous first trailer for The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer’s new picture about Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz. Watch the clip below.

Written and directed by Glazer based on the novel by Martin Amis, The Zone of Interest doesn’t portray the horrors of the Holocaust outright. Instead, it focuses on the reality of the era: that human beings committed those atrocities, and all the while, they were building families of their own. As such, the film centers on Höss (Christian Friedel) — the SS officer who introduced Zyklon B into gas chambers — and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller), who “strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.” The film was shot on location in Poland and Germany from 2021 to 2022.

The trailer doesn’t reveal much outside of that description. We see vignettes of the couple and their children enjoying family gatherings and trying on nice fur coats; what’s going on over the garden wall is but an afterthought.

The Zone of Interest hits select theaters on December 15th. Produced by James Wilson and Ewa Puszczyńska, the film is the first Glazer has directed since 2013’s Under the Skin.