Warner Bros. has announced a release date for The Commandant’s Shadow, a documentary about the real-life Höss family from Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest. The documentary is directed by Daniela Völker, and set to hit theaters on Wednesday, May 29, 2024.
“The Commandant’s Shadow follows Hans Jürgen Höss, the 87-year-old son of Rudolf Höss, as he faces his father’s terrible legacy for the first time,” the synopsis reads. “His father was the Camp Commandant of Auschwitz and masterminded the murder of over a million Jews; the life of Höss and his family was recently fictionalized in the Academy Award-winning The Zone of Interest. Now, The Commandant’s Shadow tells the story of the real people who lived on-site at Höss’s death camp. While Hans Jurgen Höss enjoyed a happy childhood in the family villa at Auschwitz, Jewish prisoner Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was trying to survive the notorious concentration camp. At the heart of this film is the historic and inspiring moment – eight decades later – when the two come face-to-face. This is the first time the descendant of a major war criminal meets a survivor in such a private and intimate setting, Anita’s London living room. Together with their children, Kai Höss and Maya Lasker-Wallfisch, the four protagonists explore their very different hereditary burdens.”
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