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“I understood through Rudolf Höß that humans are masters of repression,” says Christian Friedel.
In “The Zone of Interest” he plays the Auschwitz commandant who lived next to the concentration camp with his wife.
© Sebastian Kahnert
Jonathan Glazer's “The Zone of Interest” has been released in cinemas.
Christian Friedel plays Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höß.
Our interview with the acting star about the banality of evil.
He was born in Magdeburg, but his career began in Munich: studying acting at the Otto Falckenberg School and his first engagements at the Resi and the Kammerspiele.
Christian Friedel has now caused a sensation on theater stages in Dresden, Hanover and Düsseldorf as well as as the head of the art-pop band Woods of Birnam.
In front of the camera, he played, among other things, the village school teacher in “The White Ribbon”, a police photographer in “Babylon Berlin” and Hitler assassin Georg Elser in “Elser – He would have changed the world”.
From February 29, 2024, the 44-year-old can be seen in cinemas in Jonathan Glazer's masterpiece "The Zone of Interest", which was nominated for five Oscars: in the role of Rudolf Höß, who, as commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, was responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews and lived with his family in a dream house right next to the death camp.
Mr. Friedel, do you have to understand a mass murderer like Rudolf Höß in order to be able to embody him?
Christian Friedel:
I find it extremely difficult to understand this man's decisions;
It's also a complete mystery to me how he could live like that, in a villa right next to the concentration camp wall.
But through him I understood that humans are masters of repression: that we are all capable of ignoring a lot and creating our own reality.
This film is not a biopic about Höß;
We don't see him as a monster or as a cliche Nazi, but in everyday situations: From his example we see that these were people who committed these inhumane crimes.
In this way, the film builds a bridge to today - to what is forever embedded in us as humans.
Writer-director Jonathan Glazer combed through thousands of testimonies in the archives. Did he have a specific idea of how you should approach your character in the film?
Christian Friedel:
He always looked for opposites and said, for example: “If Rudolf Höß tells the truth exceptionally, then he is lying with his eyes, and if his eyes reveal the truth, then he is lying with his mouth.” It was important to Jonathan that Höß constantly has something contradictory within him, a constant tension that is released at the end of the film when he is shaken by choking cramps - his body tells the truth: he defends himself against the soul that is inside him.
Rudolf Höß (1901-1947, left), camp commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
© GOKS
Jonathan Glazer had the Höß villa rebuilt almost 200 meters from the original location and hidden cameras installed. How do you imagine filming?
Christian Friedel:
It made me deeply emotional to act as a German just a few meters away from the former concentration camp - you feel an enormous responsibility towards the victims.
We actually shot with up to ten cameras at the same time, but only one or two scenes per day, so we had enough time to try out different variations.
Jonathan never interrupted the scenes, they were always shot in one go, and we had complete freedom and were sometimes allowed to improvise for ten minutes, sometimes even longer than an hour.
I really liked it because it's similar to the way we work in the theater and you get into a mode where you don't even think about acting anymore.
That was Jonathan's goal too: he didn't want us to play, but rather to be.
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Sandra Hülser portrays her wife in the film. How intensive was the exchange with her?
Christian Friedel:
Extremely intense.
When we first filmed together for “Amour fou” ten years ago, we immediately had the feeling that we had known each other forever.
We are now close friends.
If we didn't value each other and trust each other unconditionally, we wouldn't have been able to develop normality in the relationship between Hedwig and Rudolf Höß.
You can feel that we really listen to each other and try to find a common rhythm.
Every evening we talked in detail about each day of filming.
And we said: Yes, it's an experiment - but come what may, we have each other!
Rudolf Höß (1901-1947, left) plays Christian Friedel in Jonathan Glazer's masterpiece.
© Leonine
Is that actually her dog scurrying around her in the film?
Christian Friedel:
Yes, that is Sandra's dog.
He was also there when Sandra and I were shown the film for the first time in a cinema in Leipzig.
The dog seemed moderately interested to me, but Sandra and I were fascinated, surprised, uncomfortable, overwhelmed - and often all at the same time.
I was completely blown away by the incredible sound design and loved seeing Jonathan's vision come to fruition.
I've seen the film several times now, and each time I thought in shock: My goodness, that could be me now!
That's the essence of this story: that we realize what we humans are capable of when we choose the wrong side.
Ultimately, we all want to live our little happiness - and there is a certain darkness that lurks within us all.
Are you getting more international offers now that the film has made a splash worldwide?
Christian Friedel:
Yes, new doors are noticeably opening.
And I would actually be happy if I could take part in another international project - but only on the condition that the role in question is also interesting.
I was recently offered to play a Nazi in a Hollywood film.
I immediately rejected that: Nazis won't come back into my life anytime soon!
(Laughs.)
INTERVIEW: Marco Schmidt