Loosely based on the novel by Martin Amis, this bold, surgical probe into our capacity for zoning out on genocide is chilling indeed. Rudolf, Hedwig and their children live a pastoral idyll, in a bright villa with a cultivated garden full of roses and hothouse fruit. But the backdrop is a high wall with chimneys beyond, and behind the birdsong are other persistent but indistinguishable sounds. Rudolf Höss is the commandant of Auschwitz. Eschewing the conventions of Holocaust drama, Jonathan Glazer’s (Under the Skin) film penetrates the too bright surface of bourgeois domesticity with visual and aural precision to reveal the horrors beneath.

Shortlisted for International Feature Film Oscar

Director: Jonathan Glazer
Starring: Sandra Hüller, Christian Friedel
US/UK/Poland, 2023, 1 hour 46 minutes, German/Polish + English subtitles