With the intriguing premise of the commander at Auschwitz in World War II, Rudolf Hoss, living family life in their well-appointed house right next to the concentration camp, this awards-winning film is bold, sombre and elegant. Running through the film is the bewildering juxtaposition of the privileged family's everyday life in their newly-created artificial-looking fantasy home of the time, separated from the atrocities by a simple garden wall. The film is slow, deliberate and very artfully constructed, the viewer experience controlled very carefully; the horrors are not shown explicitly but conveyed in the coldly dispassionate discussions of gas chamber design and distant screams, gunfire and smoke. The facade is increasingly stripped away as the film progresses, such as Hoss being more concerned about lilac bushes than human lives, casual infidelity and the framing exposes more of the camp. Christian Friedel and Sandra Huller are formidable talents as the lead couple and they dominate the film with their precise character work. Presenting Hoss as a loving family man, taking his family to the river and reading bedtime stories, together with having the most terrible job and thought processes makes for sobering viewing. The ending of the film is simple but extraordinarily powerful.
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