Skip to main content

The Zone of Interest

This event has passed

When Under the Skin director Jonathan Glazer makes a film — this is only his fourth feature in 23 years — it’s always essential viewing. And so it proves with this free adaptation of the 2014 novel by the late Martin Amis. Indeed, when it premiered in Cannes earlier this year The Times called it “a landmark movie, hugely important,” while The Hollywood Reporter described “a devastating Holocaust drama like no other.” Sandra Hüller (who also stars in Anatomy of a Fall at VIFF this year) plays Hedwig Höss, mother of five, wife to Rudolph (Christian Friedel). They live in an idyllic villa, a river running alongside the bucolic garden, literally a stone’s throw from Rudolph’s place of work — he’s Camp Commandant at Auschwitz. Hedwig’s concerns are domestic, and most of the film takes place within the home; Glazer opted to use ten fixed cameras within this space, operated by remote control, to remove authorial judgment from the mise-en-scene. Of course that choice in itself implies a kind of judgment, and The Zone of Interest offers an account of moral solipsism which is both chilling and unforgettable, all the more so for its scrupulous restraint.

 

Grand Prize of the Festival, FIPRESCI; Best Composer, Cannes 2023

Director
Cast

Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Johann Karthaus, Louis Noah Witte Max Beck

Credits
Country of Origin

USA/UK/Poland

Year

2022

Series

Special Presentations

Language

In German and Polish with English subtitles

Content Warning

Depictions of the Holocaust

18+
105 min
Drama

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Executive Producer

Reno Antoniades, Len Blavatnik, Danny Cohen, Tessa Ross, Ollie Madden, Daniel Battsek, David Kimbangi

Producer

James Wilson, Ewa Puszcyńska

Screenwriter

Jonathan Glazer

Cinematography

Łukasz Żal

Editor

Paul Watts

Production Design

Chris Oddy

Original Music

Mica Levi

Director

Jonathan Glazer headshot

Photo by Mica Levi

Jonathan Glazer

After completing art school and a degree in Theatre Design, Jonathan Glazer landed a job making film trailers. This led to music videos, TV commercials and art projects. Glazer’s feature directing debut was Sexy Beast in 2000. He went on to co-write and direct Birth in 2004 and Under the Skin in 2014.

Filmography: The Zone of Interest (2023); First Light (2020); Strasbourg 1518 (2020); Under the Skin (2013); Birth (2004)

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Mongrels

Dir. Jerome Yoo
111 min

Like Riceboy Sleeps, Jerome Yoo's debut feature is a beguiling, introspective film looking back on the Korean immigrant experience in the Canadian hinterland, here split across three chapters, each with a distinct visual aesthetic.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Doctor Zhivago

Dir. David Lean
197 min

This Valentine Day, wrap yourself in David Lean's epic, all-star love story, set against the tumult of the Russian Revolution. With Maurice Jarre's haunting score, Omar Sharif as the soulful doctor/poet, and Julie Christie as his soul-mate Lara.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Oscar® Shorts 2025: Documentary

164 min

Four of this year's short documentary nominees are from the USA, and three of them deal with violence: a prisoner on death row, Parkland, and a police shooting incident in Chicago, 2018. Happily the other nominees focus on classical music.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Paying For It

Dir. Sook-Yin Lee
85 min

Talk about a hall of mirrors! Sook-Yin Lee wittily adapts the graphic novel of the same name by her ex-boyfriend, Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, about the end of their relationship Brown's subsequent decision to start paying for sex.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise)

Dir. Marcel Carné
190 min

The crowning glory of classical French cinema, this sumptuous melodrama brings to life the early 19th century Boulevard du Crime in Paris, where popular audiences for mime shows and carnival rub shoulders with wealthy patrons of classical theatre.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Brief Encounter

Dir. David Lean
87 min

Considered one of the greatest British films ever made, this evergreen love story plays like In the Mood for Love, 1945 edition, with Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson instead of Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, and Rachmaninoff instead of Nat King Cole.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema