The cinematic adaptation of a Martin Amis novel juxtaposes mundane everyday life with the horror of Auschwitz using thermal vision and audio, among other narrative devices, reports Adrian Pennington.
The bureaucratic designation “zone of interest” [interessengebiet in German] was used by the Nazi SS to describe the 40 km2 area immediately surrounding the Auschwitz concentration camp on the outskirts of Oświęcim, Poland. Used by the late Martin Amis for the title of his 2014 novel and retained by writer-director Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) for his long-gestating cinematic adaptation, The Zone of Interest maps the geographical and psychic terrain of the Auschwitz administrators home and work lives with chilling precision.
“We wanted the camera to be like an eye,” explained Lucas Żal, the two time Polish Academy Award nominee (for Ida and Cold War) who shot Glazer’s film.
In the novel, Amis had based the villainous character of Paul Doll — a camp commandant stationed at a fictional version of Auschwitz — on Rudolf Höss, the long-serving Nazi officer widely acknowledged as one of the architects of mass extermination. (He was even credited with pioneering the use of Zyklon B gas.)
Staggeringly, the Höss family home shared its garden wall with the death camp. It was this fact that...
You are not signed in
Only registered users can read the rest of this article.
Behind the scenes: Dept. Q
Netflix's latest police procedural is a love letter to hardboiled noir and classic British TV crime drama, says showrunner Scott Frank.
.jpg)
Behind the scenes: How to Train Your Dragon
This remake of a classic animation works from Roger Deakins’ original lighting design, a colour palette plucked from the Faroe Islands, and puppeteered dragons, explains DoP Bill Pope.
Behind the scenes: Andor
“We’re not writing to the headlines, but you see this sort of conflict and empire building happen over and over again in history”, says John Gilroy, lead editor and executive producer of Star Wars spy thriller Andor.
Behind the scenes: Sinners
Shooting large format IMAX and designing a surreal montage resonated with the film's themes of spiritual ancestry and musical legacy.
Behind the scenes: 1992 and the colourist of Seville
Netflix series 1992 presents a chilling depiction of Seville during the 1992 World’s Fair, where heavy contrasts of light, dark, and a muted colour palette set a gothic atmospheric tone for this suspenseful thriller.
