Next Monday, January 27, marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz during World War 2.
The Nazi extermination camp located in occupied Poland was where over a million people (mainly Jews) were murdered; most infamously in the gas chambers.
Over the decades, there have been some devastating films about the Holocaust, from The Pianist to Schindler’s List.
Most recently was The Zone of Interest, which Steven Spielberg said was the best film on the subject since his latterly mentioned 1993 masterpiece.
Meanwhile, fellow Hollywood director Alfonso Cuarón called it “probably the most important film of this century.”
Nominated last year for five Oscars, including Best Picture, The Zone of Interest won the Academy Awards for Best International Feature and Best Sound.
The German-language British film from writer-director Jonathan Glazer follows the life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, his wife Hedwig and their children in their family home next door to the concentration camp.
The film never shows the horrors of the genocide on the other side of the wall, but you do hear them throughout.
Instead, the film is at its most disturbing in depicting the ordinary family life of the commandant and highlighting the banality of evil of the Holocaust perpetrators.
The Zone of Interest is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
