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The Zone of Interest

The 100 Most Anticipated Movies of 2023

2023

Jonathan Glazer

Sandra Hüller, Christian Friedel, Ralph Herforth, Max Beck ...

6.5

13,933

Drama The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.

	Media	Author	Review
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"The film pulls the banality of evil into pin-sharp focus (...) technically brilliant (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Owen Gleiberman Variety	"Jonathan Glazer’s profoundly chilling dramatic portrait of a Nazi family living right next door to Auschwitz (...) The director of 'Under the Skin' creates a visionary look at life rooted in the evil of denial"
		David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"Jonathan Glazer’s audacious film is a bone-chilling holocaust drama like no other"
		Richard Lawson Vanity Fair	"[It] is a bold, terrifying vision of the Holocaust (...) By focusing on an infamous Nazi commandant and his family, Jonathan Glazer takes an unflinching look at the banality of evil"
		Jonathan Romney Screendaily	"A remarkable portrait of domestic life in the shadow of Auschwitz (...) Essential viewing and a work that will be a vital focus of discussion"
		Nicholas Barber BBC	"A blood-freezing treatise on the banality of evil (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		David Ehrlich IndieWire	"Profoundly chilling (...) No Holocaust movie has ever been more committed to illustrating the banality of evil"
		Pete Hammond Deadline	"Jonathan Glazer’s stunning look at The Holocaust in a way it has not been seen (...) 'The Zone of Interest' takes its place among the great films made on the Holocaust and will probably haunt you long after seeing it"
		Ben Croll IndieWire	"Neither provocation nor counter-point, 'The Zone of Interest' is instead a furtherance, a new take on an ungraspable madness we must never let ourselves forget"
		Gregory Ellwood The Playlist	"Brilliant examination of human complicity"
		Robbie Collin Telegraph	"Devastating and vital, the 'Under the Skin' director's new drama shows how evil can flourish in the most mundane circumstances (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Alex Godfrey Empire	"A striking, unforgettable exercise in absence, this is about what we don’t see — and what we choose not to see. The horror is unseen but underlying, and all the more arresting because of it (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Dave Calhoun Time Out	"It’s a stunning film – thoughtful, challenging and disturbing (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Lex Briscuso SlashFilm	"A vital meditation on the nature of malevolence"
		Peter Howell Toronto Star	"Viewers can't turn away from this icy masterpiece; to do so would endanger your soul (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"
		Jo-Ann Titmarsh London Evening Standard	"The banal, systematic horror of Auschwitz is dealt with expertly by the English director (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Kevin Maher The Times	"A landmark movie, hugely important, that's unafraid of difficult ideas (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Sam Adams Slate	"The digital cinematography is harsh and glaring, so sharp that it rakes at your eyes. Already, we're seeing more than we want to"
		Deadline	Alfonso Cuaron praised the film, describing it as “probably the most important film in this century, both from the standpoint of his cinematic approach and the complexity of its theme.”
		Esther Zuckerman The Daily Beast	"A disturbing and brilliant film that challenges what it means to make a Holocaust movie"
		Manuel Betancourt AV Club	"A bone-chilling portrait of a Nazi household (...) Jonathan Glazer's Auschwitz-set drama is a staggering cinematic achievement"
		David Fear Rolling Stone	"Jonathan Glazer’s chilling holocaust movie is a masterpiece"
		Robert Daniels rogerebert.com	"It’s a disturbing work, guided by a discomforting sense of immaculateness that chills the viewer. It is the sanitation the film performs, which speaks to the now, in a way few Holocaust films have done before (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"
		Maureen Lee Lenker Entertainment Weekly	"An unrelenting portrait of the banality of evil (...) Director Jonathan Glazer tackles the Holocaust with a chillingly anthropological approach"
		Ann Hornaday The Washington Post	"Martin Amis’s novel becomes an unnerving cinematic portrait of the human capacity for self-justifying cruelty (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"
		Zach Lewis Slant	"Jonathan Glazer’s queasy anatomy of a systematic horror (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Graeme Guttmann Screen Rant	"A startling masterpiece andd one Of 2023's best films (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Ankit Jhunjhunwala Screen Anarchy	"All the images you are expecting to see, such as piles of suitcases, shoes and teeth, gas chambers, mounds of corpses, emaciated prisoners in prison garbs, barbed wire, and so forth, are entirely absent"
		Chase Hutchinson Collider	"[It] is a formally precise yet completely shattering cinematic intervention that emerges as one of the most monumental films ever made"
		John Serba Decider	"An exceptional film, and a difficult one to endure. The most vital stories are so often that way"
		Donald Clarke Irish Times	"Glazer may yet get in some trouble for taking such a formal approach to sensitive material. But, if anything, that self-imposed discipline speaks to the profound respect he has for the subject (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"

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