The Zone of Interest: LFF Film Review
It has taken me days to process my feelings about Jonathan Glazer‘s The Zone of Interest, a harrowing film that hit me really hard. I’ve found this movie really difficult to review but I’m going to do my best.
The Zone of Interest, inspired by Martin Amis‘ novel of the same name, depicts the ordinary and mundane goings-on of a German family living in Poland. But they are not just any family – the patriarch is Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss and their house and garden adjoin the border fence of Auschwitz.
I have never seen a film about the Holocaust like this before. The Zone of Interest forces us to look at the home life of the Auschwitz commandant (played by Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) whether we want to or not. Some people will not like being made to think of them as real people. However, Glazer does not humanise them and we keep a cold distance from them as if we are a fly on the wall of their home. Glazer worked with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to write his movie based on testimonies from staff who worked in the Höss residence.
Some viewers may find the film dull and monotonous because what happens on the surface is mundane, ordinary and undramatic. But that’s what makes it all the more horrifying – they just go about their day completely apathetic to what is going on next door. Thousands of Jews are literally being exterminated over the fence and they are having a pool party, talking about plants, etc. The juxtaposition between the mundanity in the house versus the horrendous atrocities next door makes the film a deeply uncomfortable and upsetting watch.
You don’t see any of the heinous war crimes in Auschwitz but you hear it. Oh boy, do you hear it! The sounds are more than enough because your imagination can fill in the rest. You really have to pay attention because the impact is all in the sound design, or rather the stark, startling contrast between what you see and what you hear. To give an early example, we see Hedwig applying lipstick in front of a mirror as we hear people being shot in the background.
This approach to the Holocaust is radical, impactful and quite controversial. I can fully understand why some people would not approve of it. I wasn’t sure about the last few scenes – I felt it was too close to humanising Höss – and I found it too monotonous and one-note at a certain point and glazed over briefly.
The Zone of Interest is a bleak and depressing film with a haunting sound design and score from Mica Levi. While it is not an enjoyable cinema experience (obviously), it is an important, eye-opening film that left me stunned in silence as the credits rolled. It’s a very good film but I will never see it again.
Seen at the London Film Festival. In cinemas Friday 2nd February