The Zone Of Interest marks Jonathan Glazer’s first film in almost a decade, and anticipation is at a high following a successful premiere at Cannes.
Jonathan Glazer is responsible for constructing films that are nothing short of exquisite. Sexy Beast, Birth, Under The Skin…. We’d add a couple more films here if we could but there aren’t any. If any criticism can be aimed as the British filmmaker, it’s simply that he isn’t prolific enough at making movies.
It’s been almost ten years since Glazer last directed a feature film but that film was Under The Skin, a modern masterpiece of sci-fi cinema. That film came almost ten years after his previous film, Birth and so until he decides to make films more frequently, a Glazer film really is a once-in-a-decade event. Buzz has been building for much of this year regarding Glazer’s next project, The Zone Of Interest and with the film having now debuted at Cannes and A24 handling distribution (in the US at least), it won’t be long before we get to see it.
The film is ‘loosely adapted from the Martin Amis novel of the same that tells the story of Rudolf Höss, the camp commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp and his family living as they live an ideal life just over the wall.’
Glazer has been talking about the film at Cannes, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “you never really know why you tackle any subject. This is not something I planned. It’s an ever-evolving journey. I certainly have had the subject in mind for many years.”
Following a visit to Auschwitz, Glazer began to focus on the wall that separated Höss and his family from the camp’s prisoners, adding “that wall became a manifestation of what we tell ourselves. We compartmentalise for our own convenience.”
Glazer concluded by stating that “this is not a museum piece. It needed to be presented with a degree of urgency and alarm.” We couldn’t agree more, both with the tenor of his message and because it’s been far too long since his last film. We’ll let you know when official release details emerge for The Zone Of Interest.
