Less is more: many modern artists, from van der Rohe to Beckett, have made this principle the core of their creations. But writer-director Jonathan Glazer, in audacious fashion, takes the concept to a disturbing new place: the extermination camp at Auschwitz. Rather than depicting any of the now-familiar, still incomprehensible horrors, Glazer offers us only ordinary life, following a camp commandant and hard-working bureaucrat Rudolf Hoss (Christian Friedel) and his brisk, cheerful wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller), a devoted homemaker and mom, as they engage in their everyday tasks. Zone transforms their denial and euphemism into an investigation: does evil lurk within all of us? Could you or I serve as accomplice to genocide? As Glazer rigorously exposes the horrifying, increasingly resonant truth of the Holocaust: yes, it could happen again.

D: Jonathan Glazer, US/UK, 2023, 1h45m CC

Discussion follows with Prof. Heidi Denzel and Karin Heider of the German Studies Dept, Hannah Cook and Samantha Cohen of Hillel, and Dartmouth Film Society director Caroline Wong.

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best International Feature.