Nominated for 5 Academy Awards

Director Jonathan Glazer’s stark, pitch black, meditative drama about a German family living an idyllic life right next door to Auschwitz. Glazer’s work functions less like a film and more like an art piece, designed to hang, linger and provoke a reaction. It’s in no way enjoyable, but in a lot of ways necessary. Christian Friedel stars as Rudolf Höss, the Nazi SS officer who was the longest-tenured commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. He lives with his family, including his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller, Oscar-nominated for Anatomy of a Fall), just this side of the camp. The two properties are separated by a wall, over which screams, gunshots and the hum of furnaces can constantly be heard. But Hedwig tends to her garden, and their five children play in the sun-splashed yard, as if nothing at all is happening a few hundred yards away. Composer Mica Levi, reuniting with Glazer after they teamed together on Under the Skin, does some dramatic heavy lifting with horror movie score. It’s appropriate, because in many ways The Zone of Interest is a horror movie. –Detroit News