‘There are ghosts with us’: The Zone of Interest stars on the making of a radical Holocaust film

There’s never been a film quite likeThe Zone of Interest. Set in a Nazi commandant’s family home just metres outside of the borders of Auschwitz, the Oscar-nominated arthouse drama is a Holocaust film that refuses to depict the Holocaust. Christian Friedel plays Rudolf Höss, a real-life Nazi commander on the rise, while Sandra Hüller plays his wife Hedwig, a woman building a queasily idyllic home on the outskirts of the concentration camp. “They call me the Queen of Auschwitz,” she boasts, while overlooking her verdant garden.

“I had offers to portray Nazis before,” recalls Friedel, speaking to me over Zoom alongside his co-lead. “And I always said ‘no’ – because often, it seems to be more of a cliché. But Jonathan invited us, and invited us to figure it out based on these real photographs, these real people… he invited us to find the truth.”