There’s a constant low rumble throughout The
Grey Zone – a sobering drama about the Sonderkommando, teams of Jewish prisoners who helped the Nazis usher new arrivals into the gas chambers in
exchange for better living conditions – and at first you assume the noise is coming from the constantly burning crematoriums located underground. Then you realize the rumble is the prisoners’ consciences. The Grey Zone works at you like a slow rumble. It gradually reveals horrors you wouldn’t be willing to believe if they weren’t already documented by history. Writer-director Tim Blake Nelson and his largely unrecognizable cast – including David Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino and Natasha Lyonne – sometimes rely on words rather than images to communicate the characters’ torturous positions, but The Grey Zone still speaks with a moral confusion and outrage that’s undeniable.
