Acclaimed historical drama The Zone of Interest is set to air on TV tonight, and it’s definitely one to catch if you get the chance. Released in 2023, the film focuses on Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss.
He and his family live in a home in the ‘Zone of Interest’, a restricted area next to the concentration camp, with the film focusing on them trying to build a dream life right next to the horrors being committed during the Holocaust.
The film is due to have its network premiere this evening on Channel 4 at 9.45pm, and will be available to stream on Channel 4 online afterwards. We don’t know how long the drama will stay on the streamer for, but listings typically last for around a month.
The Zone of Interest currently has an impressive approval rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes from 357 reviews, with Digital Spy calling it a “harrowing but necessary watch” in our five-star review.
“With every piece of the puzzle working to perfection, from Mica Levi’s distressing score to Lukasz Zal’s hauntingly bright cinematography, The Zone of Interest becomes both an excellent cinematic experience and an uncomfortable watch,” we added.
A24
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“Hard to watch, but impossible to forget, The Zone of Interest is a wake-up call issued from the bowels of hell. We ignore it at our peril,” wrote ABC News, while The Globe and Mail called it a “deeply chilling and precisely engineered nightmare”.
Meanwhile, The AV Club opined: “As a piece of observational cinema that borrows from the very visual grammar of nonfiction films, The Zone of Interest is an instant classic, a masterpiece whose every gorgeously framed shot aims to stun you into silence.”
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Written and directed by Under the Skin’s Jonathan Glazer, the film is based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Martin Amis, with The White Lotus’ Christian Friedel and Anatomy of a Fall’s Sandra Hüller appearing in the lead roles.
In addition to its critical acclaim, the historical drama was nominated in five categories – including Best Picture and Best Director – at the 96th Academy Awards, while it took home the awards for Best International Feature Film and Best Sound.
The Zone of Interest airs at 9.45pm on Channel 4, before streaming on its service.
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Sam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies, TV and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME and Screen International. Â Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings to Love Is Blind, and is equally in his element crossing every ‘t’ and dotting every ‘i’ as a sub-editor.