January 11, 2024
FILM: THE ZONE OF INTEREST
DIRECTED BY: JONATHAN GLAZER
STARRING: SANDRA HULLER, CHRISTIAN FRIEDEL, FREYA KREUTZKAM
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The Zone of Interest has received massive critical attention since it began playing in film festivals in 2023. I even included it in my Top Ten Films of the year. It is a brilliant if horribly disturbing experience. The film is directed by Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin) and based, in part, on a novel as well as actual historical figures. It stars Christian Fiedel as Rudolf Hoss, a commandant at Auschwitz during World War II. We’ve seen plenty of films about the true atrocities committed by the Nazi’s. This one is completely different though as we never see the true horrors on screen. The focus is on what is happening just outside of the camp’s walls. It is there that Hoss and his family live. His wife Hedwig, played by Sandra Huller, has created a beautiful home filled with a sprawling garden, pool, and servants. She is very proud of all the work she has put into it. What she seems to ignore though are the sounds of the camp as well as the smell of the air and the smoke coming from the incinerators. To make it clear: there is only a wall separating the Hoss’s home from the slaughter of millions of Jewish people.
Some might not even want to view a film with a subject like this. I get it: It IS very painful. However, we’ve never encountered such a perspective before as we see here which is expressed with this much artistry and technical finesse. We never enter the camp but we are always aware of what is happening behind that wall. First off, there is the sound design. At one point, a member of the Nazi party is explaining what needs to be accomplished. He mentions that it must happen “continuously.” That is a key word to describe what we hear. There is rarely a moment when there isn’t something happening in the vicinity of the home where we hear the sounds of Jews being shot, children crying, and trains arriving with what we know are more victims. It is a truly disturbing but impeccably designed sonic environment.
Then there is the cinematography. This is one of the most painterly designed films in recent memory. Every shot is meticulously composed to feature all of the beauty of the family home and garden while also providing glimpses of the black smoke in the air and the trains arriving. At one point, we see the faint images of prisoners chained together working the grounds or, perhaps more likely, being taken to gas chambers. It’s important to note that these images are part of a larger visual picture. We never get close-ups or anywhere near them. These significant details must be searched for within each frame. The rest of what we see is the idyllic family setting – these just happen to be nearby, like a bird flying through the sky. They’re there but the family chooses to ignore them. Perhaps they’ve become desensitized or so completely brainwashed by the Nazi’s that it doesn’t even occur to them that what is happening is beyond inhumane. It is downright barbaric.
There are two characters whose response to all this that are worth discussing. First off, there is Hedwig. She only becomes annoyed when she finds weeds in her garden. It’s as if they are the only annoying pests disrupting her beautiful landscape. Hedwig also benefits from and embraces that which her husband brings home from work. She tries on a long mink coat that was most assuredly ripped from the body of an imprisoned Jewish woman. The coat’s imperfect hem is immediately given to a servant to be fixed. Again, it’s as if she wants to cover up any signs of her world being less than perfect or blemished in any way. Later, her mother comes to visit and she proudly shows her around the house and garden. After mom has been there for a bit, she begins to notice some of those imperfections in the environment, such as the stench in the air, which makes her cough and then close windows. While we never get close-ups to really zero in on how these characters are taking all of this, eventually mom makes a quick decision to leave, suggesting her own need to distance herself from the filth around Auschwitz.
Rudolf is also interesting in his fairly robotic acceptance of all that he is committing and experiencing. There are some later scenes in the film though when cracks begin to occur in his blind perspective. If I had any qualms with the film, it’s that the later scenes are particularly opaque regarding what Glazer is trying to express. However, there is a pretty amazing moment when we are transported to the Auschwitz of today where women are cleaning the glass windows behind which contain the physical remnants of the countless victims. In that moment, we almost wonder if Rudolf is imagining the future to come.
The Zone of Interest is a superior work of film that isn’t easy to watch, not due to what we see but from what we don’t see and know is happening. While the characters are generally choosing to ignore that which they don’t see, we know that keeping a blind eye to the atrocities still being committed around the world today is something unfortunately far too commonplace.
The Zone of Interest is opening in limited release this week.
FILM: THE ZONE OF INTEREST
DIRECTED BY: JONATHAN GLAZER
STARRING: SANDRA HULLER, CHRISTIAN FRIEDEL, FREYA KREUTZKAM
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The Zone of Interest has received massive critical attention since it began playing in film festivals in 2023. I even included it in my Top Ten Films of the year. It is a brilliant if horribly disturbing experience. The film is directed by Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin) and based, in part, on a novel as well as actual historical figures. It stars Christian Fiedel as Rudolf Hoss, a commandant at Auschwitz during World War II. We’ve seen plenty of films about the true atrocities committed by the Nazi’s. This one is completely different though as we never see the true horrors on screen. The focus is on what is happening just outside of the camp’s walls. It is there that Hoss and his family live. His wife Hedwig, played by Sandra Huller, has created a beautiful home filled with a sprawling garden, pool, and servants. She is very proud of all the work she has put into it. What she seems to ignore though are the sounds of the camp as well as the smell of the air and the smoke coming from the incinerators. To make it clear: there is only a wall separating the Hoss’s home from the slaughter of millions of Jewish people.
Some might not even want to view a film with a subject like this. I get it: It IS very painful. However, we’ve never encountered such a perspective before as we see here which is expressed with this much artistry and technical finesse. We never enter the camp but we are always aware of what is happening behind that wall. First off, there is the sound design. At one point, a member of the Nazi party is explaining what needs to be accomplished. He mentions that it must happen “continuously.” That is a key word to describe what we hear. There is rarely a moment when there isn’t something happening in the vicinity of the home where we hear the sounds of Jews being shot, children crying, and trains arriving with what we know are more victims. It is a truly disturbing but impeccably designed sonic environment.
Then there is the cinematography. This is one of the most painterly designed films in recent memory. Every shot is meticulously composed to feature all of the beauty of the family home and garden while also providing glimpses of the black smoke in the air and the trains arriving. At one point, we see the faint images of prisoners chained together working the grounds or, perhaps more likely, being taken to gas chambers. It’s important to note that these images are part of a larger visual picture. We never get close-ups or anywhere near them. These significant details must be searched for within each frame. The rest of what we see is the idyllic family setting – these just happen to be nearby, like a bird flying through the sky. They’re there but the family chooses to ignore them. Perhaps they’ve become desensitized or so completely brainwashed by the Nazi’s that it doesn’t even occur to them that what is happening is beyond inhumane. It is downright barbaric.
There are two characters whose response to all this that are worth discussing. First off, there is Hedwig. She only becomes annoyed when she finds weeds in her garden. It’s as if they are the only annoying pests disrupting her beautiful landscape. Hedwig also benefits from and embraces that which her husband brings home from work. She tries on a long mink coat that was most assuredly ripped from the body of an imprisoned Jewish woman. The coat’s imperfect hem is immediately given to a servant to be fixed. Again, it’s as if she wants to cover up any signs of her world being less than perfect or blemished in any way. Later, her mother comes to visit and she proudly shows her around the house and garden. After mom has been there for a bit, she begins to notice some of those imperfections in the environment, such as the stench in the air, which makes her cough and then close windows. While we never get close-ups to really zero in on how these characters are taking all of this, eventually mom makes a quick decision to leave, suggesting her own need to distance herself from the filth around Auschwitz.
Rudolf is also interesting in his fairly robotic acceptance of all that he is committing and experiencing. There are some later scenes in the film though when cracks begin to occur in his blind perspective. If I had any qualms with the film, it’s that the later scenes are particularly opaque regarding what Glazer is trying to express. However, there is a pretty amazing moment when we are transported to the Auschwitz of today where women are cleaning the glass windows behind which contain the physical remnants of the countless victims. In that moment, we almost wonder if Rudolf is imagining the future to come.
The Zone of Interest is a superior work of film that isn’t easy to watch, not due to what we see but from what we don’t see and know is happening. While the characters are generally choosing to ignore that which they don’t see, we know that keeping a blind eye to the atrocities still being committed around the world today is something unfortunately far too commonplace.
The Zone of Interest is opening in limited release this week.