The nature of their grim subject are reasons why Holocaust films are often appraised with extra sensitivity. That doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be stated that certain Holocaust films are better than the others. The Grey Zone, 2001 drama written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson, is one of the lesser known Holocaust films and its relative obscurity isn’t completely unwarranted.
The film is based on Nelson’s stage play, inspired by Auschwitz: a Doctor's Eyewitness Account, book by Miklós Nyiszli, Hungarian Jewish physician who, while imprisoned in Auschwitz concentration camp, had helped notorious Nazi scientist Josef Mengele with his infamous experiments in exchange for having his and life of his family being spared. Nyiszli appears in the film as one of the characters, played by Allan Corduner. The plot is set in October 1944 and deals with members of Sonderkommando - Jewish and other prisoners who are left alive by Nazis in order to help them with “processing” of countless prisoners who arrive only to be gassed, robbed of their belongings and cremated. Some of them have been planning an uprising with the aim of destroying or sabotaging crematoria, which would prevent, or at least, slow down mass killings. Those plans are complicated when Hoffman (played by David Arquette), one of the prisoners, while removing a pile of corpses from the gas chambers, finds a young girl (played by Kamelia Grigorova) who miraculously survived. Prisoners decide to hide her and ask Dr. Nyiszli to keep her alive. This gets further complicated when the girl is found by SS officer Erich Muhsfeldt (played by Harvey Keitel).
The Grey Zone, which took its title from the chapter in book by Primo Levi, one of Auschwitz’s most famous survivors, stands out among many other Holocaust films by dealing it from the perspective of people who were faced with difficult ethical choices that are unfathomable to those who haven’t been on the receiving scale of such diabolically efficient and well-organised process of killing. Protagonists have to choose between doing the “right” thing and perish immediately or assisting the murderers in a flickering hope that their own survival might serve some sort of purpose, either by helping other survive or simply preserving memory of Nazi crimes. Such bleak subject is well-matched with general bleakness of the film, underlined by uncompromisingly graphic details of dehumanising treatment of Nazi victims, as well as Nelson’s attempt to be authentic as possible. The Grey Zone was shot on locations in Bulgaria, with sets being built in accordance with real engineering plans of Auschwitz.
The Grey Zone could have been a very powerful film, but Nelson, who is best known as character actor, appears not that adept as directing. The film in many ways betrays its stage origins, turning it into more theatrical and looking cheaper than it actually is. Great work of diverse actors is compromised by some questionable creative decision. The most obvious is Harvey Keitel, one of the greatest actors of his generation, speaking with heavy, almost parodical, German accent, while any other cast member is allowed to speak with their regular accents. That in many ways makes this well-intentioned film look too much Hollywood-like and thus lacking the impact that much more sentimental but technically better films like Schindler’s List had. In 2015 the same subject was covered by Hungarian film Son of Saul.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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