Genre : Historical Drama / War / Biography

Runtime : 1hr 45min

Language : English

IMDb : 7.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes : 93%

Letterboxd : 3.9/5

Metacritic : 92%

Wikipedia : Link

Director : Jonathan Glazer

Cast

Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Medusa Knopf, Daniel Holzberg, Sascha Maaz, Arthur Liebehenschel

Plot

The Zone of Interest examines the life of Rudolf Höss, commandant of Auschwitz, and his family as they live next door to one of history’s most infamous concentration camps. Directed with chilling restraint by Jonathan Glazer, the film juxtaposes domestic normality against the horrors taking place just beyond the household walls. Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) attempt to build an idealized family life, tending to gardens, children, and social appearances, all while tacitly participating in one of humanity’s gravest atrocities. The film avoids graphic depictions of violence; instead, it relies on sound—the distant rumbling, the off-screen cries—and the banality of the home environment to force the audience to confront moral dissonance. Dialogue is minimal and scenes of everyday domestic tasks become more unsettling as the proximity to evil becomes impossible to ignore. This is not just a story about guilt or atrocity—it’s a study of complicity, silence, and how ordinary lives can mask unimaginable horrors.