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The Grey Zone

6.7

4,390

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Original title

The Grey Zone

Year

2001

Running time

108 min.

Country

United States

Director

Tim Blake Nelson

Screenwriter

Tim Blake Nelson. Novel: Miklos Nyiszli

Cast

Music

Jeff Danna

Cinematography

Russell Lee Fine

Producer

Millennium Films, Killer Films, Goatsinger Films production

Genre

Drama | Nazism. Holocaust. II World War. Based on a true story

Synopsis

The true story of Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Hungarian Jew chosen by Josef Mengele to be the head pathologist at Auschwitz. Nyiszli was one of Auschwitz's Sonderkommandos - Special Squads of Jewish prisoners placed by the Nazis in the excruciating moral dilemma of helping to exterminate fellow Jews in exchange for a few more months of life. Together, the Sonderkommandos struggled to organize the only armed revolt that would ever take place at Auschwitz. As the rebellion is about to commence, a group from the unit discovers a 14-year-old girl who has miraculously survived a gassing. A catalyst for their desperate attempt at personal redemption, the men become obsessed with saving this one child, even if doing so endangers the uprising which could save thousands. To what terrible lengths are we willing to go to save our own lives, and what in turn would we sacrifice to save the lives of others?

Awards: 2001: San Sebastián Film Festival: Nominated for the Golden Seashell

2002: National Board of Review: Freedom of Expression Award

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Critics' reviews

"I have seen a lot of films about the Holocaust, but I have never seen one so immediate, unblinking and painful in its materials. (...) pitiless, bleak and despairing. (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of four)"

Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times
"Nelson (...) invests this unusual Holocaust drama with dramatic intensity that in no way cheapens its subject matter. (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of four)"

Mike Clark: USA Today
"The movie's storyline is not always perfectly clear, seemingly falling into the same murky 'grey zone' as everything else"

Marjorie Baumgarten: Austin Chronicle
"Extremely difficult but worthy film"

Ken Fox: TV Guide
"It isn't just that there's something unsettling about a film that aestheticizes a crematorium; it's that there's something trivializing about the very effort"

Manohla Dargis: Los Angeles Times
"Jagged, unrelenting, claustrophobically intimate."

Ann Hornaday: The Washington Post
"Relentlessly graphic. (...) These images are so strong that they defeat the film's moral complexity. The more realistic ''The Grey Zone'' pretends to be, the more its unrealistic elements stand out."

Stephen Holden: The New York Times
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User history

The Grey Zone

2001

Tim Blake Nelson

6.7

(4,390)