by MATTHEW HAYS

There isn’t a whole lot that can prepare you for the emotional onslaught that is The Grey Zone. Writer-director Tim Blake Nelson (who most will recall from his film acting) has crafted a remarkable feature, a film that manages, without exploitation, to recreate the dire existence for those detained at the Auschwitz death camp.

In particular, Nelson focuses on the Oct. 7, 1944, uprising that occurred in the camp. As well, he explores the Sonderkommando, a group of Jewish inmates who helped the Nazis carry out mass slaughter in return for special privileges. He has chosen his cast masterfully; the film boasts striking performances by David Arquette (often cast in comic roles, Arquette proves his mettle beyond any doubt here), Mira Sorvino, Harvey Keitel and David Chandler.

Nelson doesn’t hold back, making us witness several atrocities early in the film. Arquette, playing a member of the Sonderkommando, conveys the sordid horror of someone complicit in the assembly-line genocide of his own people—a topic that’s not always addressed due to its obvious moral complexity. And it’s also part of what sets this film apart; after all, when screenwriters have wanted to evoke evil, they’ve too frequently simply stamped a swastika on someone. Alternately, survivors can make for simplistic screenplay victims. In his singular vision, Nelson sidesteps the cliché-ridden mess much of recent film and TV history has made of the Holocaust, painting a portrait that is as intricate as it is horrific.

Mercifully, Nelson has not asked his actors to adopt fake German accents that often mar films of this sort, which points up the film’s decided departure from the other recent Holocaust epic, Schindler’s List. While laudable, that film was shot through the lens of a verité-style strain of realism, telling us we were watching the Real Thing via black-and-white footage (WWII was fought in b&w, after all) and sharply detailed costume and art direction. Nelson, by contrast, has taken a few pages out of the book of Brecht, making The Grey Zone’s theatrical roots quite clear. The film keeps reminding us that we’re watching a movie and, astonishingly, this does nothing to dilute the horror of the representations of the historical hallmark of the 20th century. Instead, it only further reminds us that what we’re witnessing is mere artifice, and that what actually occurred was undoubtedly far, far worse.

When in Europe last month, I visited a death camp for the first time. As I toured the site, I was struck by how much the place felt like a film set, like something unreal and otherworldly. My historical associations with the Holocaust have been so entirely mediated through film, it was difficult to digest the fact that I was at the place where a good deal of the mass murder had actually taken place.

In an uncanny bit of filmmaking, Nelson seems entirely aware of this sense of history. Taking it into account, he has moved beyond so many of the film versions of genocide, creating one of the most unnerving, uncompromising historical films I’ve ever seen. :

The Grey Zone opens Friday, Nov. 8

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