The English author Martin Amis, photographed by Maximilian Sch\u00f6nherr in a hotel suite in Cologne, Germany, March 17, 2012. (Maximilian Sch\u00f6nherr via Creative Commons)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Amis, who died on Friday of esophageal cancer at the age of 73, was not primarily known for his Holocaust fiction. But that aspect of his career may soon loom large, as \u201cThe Zone of Interest,\u201d an adaptation of his penultimate novel, has become an early favorite to win this year\u2019s Palme d\u2019Or, the top prize at Cannes. <\/p>\n
If the film comes away from the festival with an award, it could serve as an honor of sorts at the end of a largely celebrated but at times controversial career. In addition to his writing, Amis was known for his tabloid-fodder romances and derogatory comments about Muslims. The son of British literary titan Kingsley Amis, his most well-regarded work included the so-called London Trilogy of novels, published in the 1980s and 1990s, and a 2000 memoir.<\/p>\n
Published in 2014, \u201cThe Zone of Interest\u201d was Amis\u2019 second-to-last novel and concerned itself, as many of his works did, with the mechanisms of genocide and the dark theme of societal collapse. The book centers around a figure loosely inspired by Auschwitz death camp commandant Rudolph Hoess. It dissects the mentality of Nazi officers and their families as they attempt to construct compartmentalized personal lives while committing atrocities against Jews. Amis\u2019 novel also includes the perspective of a Jewish sonderkommando \u2014 a concentration camp prisoner who disposed of the dead bodies of fellow Jews after they had been gassed.<\/p>\n
In the movie version, directed by the acclaimed British Jewish filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, the protagonist is explicitly Hoess himself. Glazer told reporters that he hoped the film adaptation would \u201ctalk to the capacity within each of us for violence, wherever you\u2019re from.\u201d It was important, he said, to depict Nazis not as \u201cmonsters,\u201d but rather to show that \u201cthe great crime and tragedy is that human beings did this to other human beings.\u201d The movie was filmed in Auschwitz and is scheduled to be released later this year.<\/p>\n
Amis was known more broadly for his mixture of satirical novels and fierce polemics, and he took on everything from the Stalinist regime to modern-day feminism to Islam in the post-9\/11 world. That last topic earned him particular condemnation in 2006 when he asserted, among other things, \u201cThe Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order.\u201d He apologized for that comment and denied being an Islamophobe, though soon afterward, according to The New York Times, he identified as an \u201canti-Islamist\u201d and told the British newspaper The Independent: \u201cAnti-Islamism is not like antisemitism. There is a reason for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
If \u201cThe Zone of Interest\u201d wins the top prize at Cannes, it will come amid a wave of other premieres at the festival this year that also grapple with historical antisemitism. \u201cOccupied City,\u201d a new four-hour documentary from Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen, juxtaposes modern-day Amsterdam with descriptions of its citizens\u2019 lives under Nazi occupation. \u201cThe Goldman Case,\u201d a courtroom drama, is based on the real-life 1975 trial of left-wing French Jewish radical Pierre Goldman, who claimed he was a victim of antisemitic targeting by police and who was later murdered. \u201cKidnapped,\u201d which will premiere Tuesday, is an Italian historical drama about the Catholic Church\u2019s 19th-century kidnapping of Jewish child Edgardo Mortara.<\/p>\n
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