Poles Share Their Souls With the World
variety.comChristopher Vourlias The anticipation surrounding Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest” was building long before it was tapped to compete at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Details about the Auschwitz-set film, which is loosely based on the novel by Martin Amis, have been kept under wraps, although no less a Cannes personage than festival director Thierry Fremaux described it as “quite a challenging film.” Glazer’s first movie since 2013 sci-fi fantasy “Under the Skin” is sure to be among the more talked-about films bowing on the Croisette.
Filmed entirely in Poland and lensed by two-time Oscar nominee Łukasz Żal (“Ida,” “Cold War”), “Zone of Interest” is also a triumph for the Polish film industry. “The character, the genes of the film, they were here in Poland,” says Academy Award-winning producer Ewa Puszczyńska (“Ida,” “Cold War”), whose shingle Extreme Emotions shares producing credits with British producer James Wilson’s JW Films. “There is a lot of Polish soul…in this film.” In recent years, Cannes has been a welcome launching pad for Polish filmmakers.
One year ago, legendary auteur Jerzy Skolimowski competed for the Palme d’Or with his festival standout “EO,” a moving story about the life of a donkey that would go on to receive an Academy Award nomination for best international feature film.
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