Film Roundtable Discussion | 'The Zone of Interest' (2023) Event

Released in December 2023 and nominated for five Academy Awards, The Zone of Interest centres on SS officer Rudolf Höss’s deportation and gassing of 420,000 Hungarian Jews at Auschwitz in 1944. Loosely based on a 2014 novel of the same name by Martin Amis, these horrific events are set against the domestic life of Höss and his family, whose lavish home is situated just beyond the camp boundary. Starring Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel, the film explores the ‘banal’ quality of evil observed by Hannah Arendt within her writings on the trial of Adolf Eichmann in the 1960s, and the indifference of its chief perpetrator Höss – the longest-serving commandant at Auschwitz who was executed in 1947.

The roundtable will involve a discussion between filmmaker Josh Appignanesi and scholars from the University of Southampton and University of Winchester, including Emily-Rose Baker, Drew Crawford and Emiliano Perra.

Chaired by Claire Le Foll, the discussion will focus on the Holocaust and its representation in The Zone of Interest, including the film’s cinematography and soundscape, its historical context, and questions surrounding the ethics and aesthetics of foregrounding a perpetrator perspective of Nazi genocide on screen.

This is a hybrid event, meaning you can attend in-person at Avenue Campus or online via Zoom.

Please note that we will not be screening the film during this event. This event is a roundtable discussion based on the film, although you are welcome to attend even if you have not watched the film. Click here to view the trailer.