‘Zone of Interest’ Trailer: First Look at A24’s Haunting Holocaust Drama

A24 has released the first trailer for Jonathan Glazer’s haunting new Holocaust film Zone of Interest.

The German-language title has won raves from critics for its adaptation of Martin Amis’ 2014 novel, which focuses on the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife, Hedwig, “as they strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.”

The movie premiered at Cannes Film Festival where it won the Grand Prix award.

The Hollywood Reporter film critic David Rooney called it a “a devastating Holocaust drama like no other, which demonstrates with startling effectiveness the British formalist’s unerring control of tonal and visual storytelling.”

The film stars Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Daniel Holzberg, Ralph Herforth and Sascha Maaz.

At Cannes, Glazer was asked about releasing Zone of Interest in light of the worldwide uptick in antisemitism. “What it’s trying to do is talk to the human capacity for violence, wherever you are from,” he said. “Just [trying to] show these people as people and not as monsters was a very important thing to do because the great crime and tragedy is that human beings did this to other human beings. It’s very convenient for us to try to distance ourselves from them but I think we should be less certain than that … This is not a museum piece. It needed to be presented with a degree of urgency and alarm.”

Zone of Interest is released in U.S. theaters Dec. 15.