The Zone Of Interest (2023)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
For all the films made about World War II and Nazi Germany, you have never seen a film take this type of approach before when attempting to show us the atrocities of Auschwitz.
There just aren’t a lot of words that can describe the feeling one gets when watching The Zone of Interest. The filmmaking and storytelling is masterful, yet the film angers, saddens, and devastates by forcing you at an arms length and keeping you as an observer.
Two powerful performances, exceptional cinematography, a halting musical score, stunning set design and an unnerving use of sound design - The Zone of Interest is easily one of 2023’s most significant cinematic achievements.
NO
Look…no matter how much prep you do for this - you simply won’t be ready for the emotional ringer this puts you through. And yet, it is necessary viewing.
There are obvious trigger warnings throughout the film. Though there is no violence captured on screen, this movie is not for the faint of heart.
There are those who feel this is pretentious filmmaking, that its obviousness leaves little room to expand on its themes. At times, the film feels inert as if nothing is happening. The horror Glazer captures largely exists in those moments. How you accept the storytelling methods will determine how you accept The Zone of Interest.
OUR REVIEW
Writer/director Jonathan Glazer devastates you with The Zone of Interest. There simply isn’t any other way to describe the impact this movie has on you. Nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, this is as bold and brave a film as you will ever find. Bold in the way Glazer revisits the horrors of World War II, from directly inside Poland. Brave in seeing what Glazer decides to give you and what he chooses to withhold. At the risk of cliché, I must say that I don’t think I have ever seen a film even remotely close to this one.
Glazer begins his film in Poland, circa 1943, initially with what we believe to be an idyllic and serene setting. A family enjoys their time together at a lake. However, what appears to be a representation of warmth and family connection gives way to the actual reality of who this is and what we are observing.
This family is the Höss family. Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), his wife, children, and housekeepers live in a two-story home with a bountiful garden and beautiful landscaping. And just over their fence is Auschwitz, the concentration and extermination camp where Höss’ actions would result in the mass murder of more than one million people as part of Hitler’s “Final Solution” to exterminate as many people identified as Jewish as possible.
We never travel into the concentration camps. We never see ritualistic murder, or the funneling of women and children into gas chambers or extended scenes of individuals suffering from starvation. Instead, Glazer balances images of tea time, gardening, and the Höss children’s daily playtime with the sounds of what happens to be occuring over the fence. As Glazer has described, there are two movies happening at once in The Zone of Interest - the one we are watching and the one we are hearing.
Such a stark disconnect from reality is the point. In adapting Martin Amis’ 2014 book of the same name, Glazer trusts that the juxtaposition he shows us will be jarring and unsettling. And it is. As much as I admire the film, I also am angry at how it made me feel. I was incapable of stopping the callous indifference, the intentional disregard of human life that is more than embraced by Rudolf’s wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller).
For all the countless ways evil has been presented to us on screen, I am not sure I have seen something quite this chilling. The image of Hedwig trying on a newly acquired fur coat and exhibiting an air of disgust before applying red lipstick found in the coat pocket to her own lips is unconscionable and terrifying. When Rudolf, serving as the commandant of Auschwitz, takes a meeting in his living room with colleagues and blueprints are being discussed, we learn that he is approving the final specifications for the creation of a more efficient crematorium.
Let those words sink in. A more efficient crematorium.
Among its naysayers, and believe me there are more than a few,The Zone of Interest has been disregarded and diminished as a film largely borne of mundane inactivity. That’s a hard statement to argue against. Cinematographer Łukasz Żal keeps his camera largely at a medium distance, purposely forcing us to take the role of observer. That passivity emboldens our anxiety, distress and heartbreak. Glazer and Żal use observation as a weapon and the cries, the gunshots, the unforgiving sounds which come at random and surround this heedless family, only make this all the more unforgettable of a viewing experience.
When Rudolf learns of a reassignment, he proposes the family relocate. Hedwig declines, the life they have built seemingly too comfortable to give up. As Rudolf relocates, he discovers that when he is away from everything he is accustomed to experiencing, his conscience begins catching up to him.
Perhaps it goes without saying that The Zone of Interest is not for everyone. Deeply polarizing, it presents indifference as a form of denial, and denial as a weapon of unfathomable cruelty. These actions are unspeakable and indefensible. Yet, it’s the silence, amid screams, gunshots, and a constant rumbling of fire, which haunts us.
When covering the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of “The Final Solution,” legendary journalist Hannah Arendt asked if a person could do evil things without being evil themselves. She described Eichmann as “terrifyingly normal,” and described him as embodying a “banality of evil.” This was highly controversial for its time, and to some, her reconciliation of Eichmann was irresponsible and insensitive, while others found it a fascinating question worth deeper exploration.
The Zone of Interest walks a similar path. The Höss family knows what’s happening, they just choose to disengage. They are presented as a family trying to build a life, where Dad goes off to work and Mom is a homemaker, raising the kids and tending to the house. Yet they are monsters, no doubt, truly detestable in their actions.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Ralph Herforth, Daniel Holzberg, Sascha Maaz, Freya Kreutzkam, Max Beck, Ralf Zillman
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Written by: Jonathan Glazer
Based on the novel “The Zone of Interest” by Martin Amis
Release Date: December 15, 2023
A24