[10] Beginning in September 2011, he spent five months in Sciences Po Paris as part of a scholarship program arranged by the Cinéfondation, where he and Clara Royer developed the script for Son of Saul.

[citation needed] In 2012, they continued intensive work on the screenplay for seven months at the Jerusalem International Film Lab rubbing shoulders with emerging directors such as Boo Junfeng and fr:Morgan Simon.

In his speech, Glazer stated he and producer James Wilson stood "... as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza."

Nemes stated that Glazer "... should have stayed silent instead of revealing he has no understanding of history and the forces undoing civilization, before or after the Holocaust..." and accused him of resorting to "talking points disseminated by propaganda meant to eradicate, at the end, all Jewish presence from the Earth."

Nemes also suggested that the choice in the film to focus on the perpetrators of the Holocaust rather than the victims related to Glazer's speech, writing "[M]aybe it all makes sense, ironically... there is absolutely no Jewish presence on screen in The Zone of Interest.