The Grey Zone
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The Grey Zone is a film directed by Tim Blake Nelson in 2001 and stars David Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino and Daniel Benzali. It is based on the book; Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account written by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, published in 1993 by Arcade Publishing (ISBN 1-55970-202-8).
The title comes from the title of an essay by Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi. The film tells the story of the Sonderkommando XII in the Auschwitz concentration camp in October 1944. These prisoners were made to assist the Germans in shepherding their victims to the gas chambers and disposal of the bodies in ovens.
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[edit] Story
[edit] Plot Summary
Tagline:
- The story you haven't seen
The film opens in October 1944, in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. A small group of Sonderkommandos are plotting an insurrection that, they hope, will destroy at least one of the camp's four crematoria and gas chambers. They are receiving firearms from Polish citizens in the nearby village and gunpowder from the UNIO munitions factory; the women prisoners who work in the UNIO are smuggling the powder to the men’s camp among the bodies of their dead workers. The women are eventually captured by the Germans and savagely tortured, but they don't reveal the plot.
Meanhwile, a Hungarian-Jewish doctor, Miklos Nyiszli, who works for the Nazi scientist Josef Mengele in an experimental medical lab, has received permission from Mengele himself to visit his wife and daughter in the women’s labor camp. Nyiszli is quite concerned about the safety of his family and believes that Mengele’s orders will keep them from the gas chambers.
A new trainload of Hungarian-Jewish prisoners arrives and all are immediately sent to the gas chambers, where, as the group undresses and are given instructions about "delousing," a fearful, angry man in the group begins shouting questions at one of the Sonderkommando, Hoffman (David Arquette), who has been issuing the instructions, and is beaten to death by Hoffman in outburst of frustration, in an attempt to make the man stop talking. After the gassing of this same group, a badly shaken Hoffman finds a young girl alive beneath a pile of bodies. He removes her from the chamber, and, after informing the leader of the insurgency, Schlermer (Daniel Benzali), takes her to a storage room and summons Dr. Nyiszli, who is able to revive her. The group decides to hide her in the children’s camp. While the prisoners hide her in a dressing room, SS-Oberscharführer Eric Muhsfeldt (Harvey Keitel) suddenly walks in. Noticing that one of the prisoners present, Abramowics (Steve Buscemi), is there illegally, he shoots him, prompting the girl to scream and to be discovered. Nyiszli then takes Muhsfeldt outside and tells him about the uprising, but cannot tell him where or when it will begin. Muhsfeldt agrees to protect the young girl after the uprising is suppressed.
The insurrection begins and the Crematorium IV and one another are destroyed with the smuggled explosives. All the Sonderkommandos who survive the explosions and gunfights with the SS are captured. They are held until the fire in the crematorium is extinguished and executed shortly after. Hoffmann and a fellow prisoner, Rosenthal (David Chandler), conclude that the girl will not be set free after she is forced to watch the executions. After all captives are shot, the girl is allowed to flee toward the main gate of the camp. Before she can run very far, Muhsfeldt draws his handgun and shoots her.
The film closes with a poetic voice-over recitation by the dead girl. Referring to the ashes from the furnaces and the new Sonderkommandos working among them, she says:
I catch fire quickly. The first part of me rises in dense smoke that mingles with the smoke of others. Then, there are the bones, which settle in ash. And these are swept up to be carried to the river. And last, bits of our dust simply float there, in air, around the working of the new group. These bits of dust are grey. We settle on their shoes and on their faces, and in their lungs. And they become so used to us, that's on they don't cough and they don't brush us away. At this point, they're just moving, breathing and moving. Like any one else, still alive in that place. And this is how the work... continues.
[edit] Production and release
The film was based upon Tim Blake Nelson's own play adapted from Nyiszli's book, althrough some critics have found that the dialogue has a stilted tone. A 90% scale "model" of the Birkenau camp was built near Sofia, Bulgaria for the production of the film using the original architectural plans. Almost everything in this movie is accurate, except for the manner of the ending and that the story of the girl is an amalgamation of two different, similar stories.
Considering the stars in the line up and the nature of the subject it is surprising that the film was not released in the UK on DVD or Video. Released on DVD on March 18, 2003, it is available outside of the UK on Region 1 DVD and also on European Region 2 DVD.
