"The Zone of Interest" depicts the Auschwitz commandant’s life

It is a daunting challenge to present a cinematic experience that does justice to the Holocaust without repeating previous, worthy considerations of the unfathomable horrors. To his credit, then, writer/director Jonathan Glazer has forged a new approach in “The Zone of Interest.” Loosely based on Martin Amis’ 2014 novel, Glazer’s narrative adds to the banality of evil.

The story takes place adjacent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where Nazi soldiers and their families celebrate the commandant’s birthday, dispute assignments, tend their gardens, choose from victims’ salvaged clothes, and play games, the Holocaust always a backdrop. Commandant Rudolf Höss, his wife Hedwig, and their children pursue ordinary lives, indifferent to the world behind the wall dividing them from smokestacks, occasional sounds of trains and gunshots, and the production of the ash used to nourish their plants.

For last year’s Telluride Film Festival, Glazer explained the lengthy genesis of the project, his two years of research that led to a visit to Auschwitz. There, he reports being struck by the proximity of the camp to Commandant Rudolf Höss’ house, his family, and their gardens, “an idyll that they’ve made for themselves built quite literally on the bones of the victims.” With help from researchers at the Auschwitz Museum archives plus access to other documents, Glazer scrutinized testimonials of anyone who worked for or had knowledge of Höss and that community. For example, their gardener, a WWII survivor, mentioned overhearing Rudolf and Hedwig arguing about Rudolf’s transfer to another camp. Hedwig resented any move, she so cherished their life at Auschwitz.

Building on the data he gathered, Glazer decided to portray actual individuals. Further enhancing authenticity, he shot, in part, at Auschwitz. Cinematographer Łukasz Żal keeps the camera at a distance, resisting melodrama or sensationalism, though there is never any moral ambiguity. Superb performances (especially by Christian Friedel as Rudolf Höss and Sandra Hüller as Hedwig) unfolded before cameras embedded in the location, the effect sobering. The final, unexpected scene intensifies the impact, and left me speechless and unable to move. “The Zone of Interest” is in German and Polish with English subtitles. Check listings.