Steven Spielberg calls ‘The Zone of Interest’ “best Holocaust movie” since ‘Schindler’s List’
Schindler’s List director Steven Spielberg has called The Zone of Interest “the best Holocaust movie I’ve witnessed since my own.”
Written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest is nominated for ‘Best Picture’ at the upcoming Academy Awards on March 10th. Loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, it tells the story of Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss, played by Christian Friedel, who strives to build a dream life with Sandra Hüller’s character, Hedwig, his wife, in a home next to the Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland.
A resounding success, it won three Baftas in 2024 after previously being nominated for three Golden Globes. It has also been nominated for five Academy Awards. The film premiered at Cannes Film Festival last year and won the ‘Grand Prix’ and ‘FIPRESCI Prize’.
Spielberg’s 1993 drama Schindler’s List is the most successful Holocaust movie ever made, taking home seven Academy Awards at the 66th ceremony.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, for an oral history of Schindler’s List, Spielberg said: “The Zone of Interest is the best Holocaust movie I’ve witnessed since my own. It’s doing a lot of good work in raising awareness, especially about the banality of evil.”
Spielberg, who comes from a Jewish family that lost relatives in the Holocaust and experienced violent antisemitism in high school, also spoke about the rise in antisemitism in the contemporary era.
He said: “Since 2016, antisemitism has joined racism, xenophobia, homophobia and all these maladies and cultural afflictions in the air at eye level. I think it’s here to stay — and I think it’s a good thing that it’s here to stay. Everybody wants it to go away because it’s uncomfortable to deal with it. It needs to be uncomfortable, because the only way we can find a solution to the way people treat the Jews is for it to always be part of the conversation.”
The director concluded: “It’s the best movie I’ve ever made. I am not going to say it’s the best movie I ever will make. But currently, it’s the work I’m proudest of.”
Watch the trailer for The Zone of Interest below.
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