QUICK SUMMARY
Amazon Prime Video is set to add one of the most important films of 2024. The Zone of Interest won Best International Film at the 2024 Oscars.
If the big winner of the Oscars 2024 was Oppenheimer, I'd have to say that in a very close second is Amazon Prime Video.
The streaming service is home to a pair of nominees already with Anatomy of a Fall and American Fiction both streaming on the platform. Now a third Best Picture nominee (and Best International Film winner) is making its way to Prime Video, The Zone of Interest. Unfortunately, I can't give you a specific date yet, only that it has appeared in the 'Coming soon' section of Prime which signals a release sometime within the next month.
Directed by Jonathan Glazer and based on Martin Amis' novel of the same name, this is a powerful drama following Rudolph Höss (Christian Friedel), the Nazi commander of the Auschwitz concentration camp, and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller). They live in an almost normal family home next to the concentration camp, one of the most evil places on earth.
Of course, these aren't exactly sympathetic protagonists, Höss is literally a high-ranking Nazi mass murderer and it's a brave filmmaker who centres the story around him and his family. They are presented almost like a normal family who do ordinary things like work in the garden and go swimming. Höss even reads a bedtime story to his daughters, right next to a concentration camp. It's a powerful juxtaposition to say the least. This isn't the movie trying to excuse their actions but to show audiences that it doesn't take too much to drive ordinary people to do horrible things. That contrast is similarly brought up in just how beautiful the film's cinematography and framing are. It's a visual treat while the unimaginable happens just off-screen.
It's not an easy watch but it's definitely a worthwhile one. Aside from my pitch and the Oscar recognition, a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes should be all the convincing you need to keep an eye out for the movie's Prime Video release.
If you live in the US the good news is that you don't even need to wait. Instead of Prime Video, The Zone of Interest is already streaming on Max
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