The picture tells the story of the family life, in the shadow of the crematorium chimneys, of Rudolf Hoess, the first commandant of Auschwitz. The film loosely refers to the war narrative “area of interests” Martin Amis from 2014, which describes the love between Hewes and his wife Hedwig, with whom he had five children.
According to the museum director, Piotr Cywinski, the film is unique in several aspects. “It is unique, among other things, because of the way it is filmed. A house like a house. Small rooms inside. (…) I visited the set, and it turned out that there were about a dozen cameras permanently installed.” Inside, in a container standing next to it, is the entire crew who can see a dozen or so screens and decide. Thanks to this, there were only actors in the house who played as naturally as possible. (…) You can say: “I really feel this nature in this movie.”
Producer James Wilson said that Jonathan Glazer liked the way he depicted several storylines occurring simultaneously. “In my opinion, this is something new in cinema. (…) Many things are happening at the same moment. (…) We have created the feeling that you are a fly on the wall, observing what is happening. It is extremely important “Modern; Not like a historical film,” he says.
Producer Ewa Boscinska said that this film – in her words – “stands out in everything.” She confirmed that when you watch “Business Zone,” you can watch two films. “One – we hear, the other – we see. And this is very special. We do not show the victims. We show the executioners. (…) What we see and hear in our subconscious builds the image of this horror. We see and hear a wonderful paradise next to hell,” she said. (…) This is very innovative.”
The painting was created in cooperation with the Auschwitz Museum, which was carried out on various levels. Text elements and set design were consulted. Its pronunciation has also been discussed in full. The museum also supported the creators by providing access to camp documents, survivor accounts, and thematic consultations. “Without the collaboration with the Auschwitz Museum, this film would not have been possible,” director Jonathan Glazer said after the screening.
One of the topics is the assistance provided to Auschwitz prisoners by Poles from Oświęcim and the surrounding area who lived outside the titular area of interest. It was based on facts. The creators reached out to a woman from Brzeszcza who told them her story.
Photos cannot be taken for historical reasons. Only the final scenes of the film – documentary images showing the museum's workings and objects left by the victims – were filmed at the memorial site.
In 1922, Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Huess joined the Nazis by joining the Nazi Party. The following year, he participated in a political murder. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Thanks to an amnesty, he was released from prison in 1928. After imprisonment, he settled on a farm in Brandenburg, then in Pomerania, where he married Hedwig Hansel. His three children were born there. The fourth was born in Dachau, and the fifth was born in Auschwitz. In 1934 he joined the SS. He served in the guard unit and administration of the Dachau concentration camp. Four years later, he began service in Kuala Lumpur-Sachsenhausen. The following year he was promoted to deputy commander.
In the spring of 1940, he was appointed commandant of the newly established Auschwitz concentration camp, where Poles were imprisoned almost exclusively at first. The camp was supposed to serve as an instrument of terror and thus the extermination of thousands of Polish patriots. Gradually it turned into a place of genocide of Jews. They also died there, including: Roma and Soviet prisoners of war.
The Hoss family lived in a villa located next to the camp's barbed wire. “The children could run away as much as they wanted, and my wife had so many favorite flowers that she felt she was in heaven among them,” Hoss wrote in his memoirs. His wife used to say: I live here and I die here.
At the end of the war, the former commander went into hiding. He was arrested near Flensburg on the night of March 11-12, 1946. He was taken to Poland. After the trial, he was sentenced to death and on April 16, 1947, he was executed in the former Auschwitz camp. A gallows was erected near the former commandant's building.
