The Zone of Interest received a six-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. (Image: Twitter)
The Zone of Interest is based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Martin Amis. The film stars Toni Erdmann as Hüller, the wife of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss during the Holocaust.
Three days later, while the ongoing Cannes Film Festival looked a bit bleak – the showers weren’t making it any easier – Johnny Depp, with some star power like Jonathan Glazer’s competition headliner, The Zone of Interest, shone. The film’s world premiere was followed by a six-minute standing ovation.
“Thank you so much,” Glazer told the crowd after a standing ovation, adding, “I’m really overwhelmed by this. It’s a dream. To be a part of it with you, thank you.”
The Zone of Interest is Glazer’s first work to premiere at Cannes. This is her fourth feature after Sexy Beast, Birth and Under the Skin.
Glazer had a long break in his work. Nine years separated “birth” and “under the skin”, while 10 years separated “under the skin” and “region of interest”. “Birth” premiered at the Venice Film Festival, while “Under the Skin” opened at the Telluride Film Festival.
The Zone of Interest tells the story of an Auschwitz commandant and his wife in a gruesome fashion. They live in a dream house, but next to a concentration camp, and the smoke from the gas chambers along with the screams and gunfire are terrifying for the couple, who learn to survive in them.
The Zone of Interest is based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Martin Amis. The film stars Toni Erdmann as Hüller, the wife of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss during the Holocaust. The cast also includes Christian Friedel, Daniel Holzberg and Sasha Maze.
Before that, Black Flies, starring Sean Penn, was atrocious. He plays a veteran rookie paramedic in the New York Fire Department. “We bear sorrow,” says a weary Penn character in the film. This seems like an understatement as the chaos that ensues in the city is unforgivable.
Directed by Jean-Stephen Sauvière, Black Flies aims to honor the heroic work and sacrifice of paramedics. The end credits give statistics about the alarming rate of suicide in the profession. But the movie is about careless men and women who need help. Sauvaire seems more concerned with the suffering of one group than the other.
