by Foster Harlfinger, Contributing Writer
A family picnic comes to a close on a lush, green expanse by the bank of a lazy river. The family ambles home as the delicate sounds of nature mingle with the distant pitter-patter of gunfire and screams. They show no sign of concern, but why should they? After all, this is simply another day at home for Commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his family beyond the walls of Auschwitz.
Loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, The Zone of Interest centers itself on the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp and his wife, Hedwig (Sandra Hüller), as they perfect their luxury villa just next door. The juxtaposition between the Höss home and garden with the nightmarish hellscape beyond the barbed-wire topped dividing wall is as visually striking as it is upsetting. The emotional response the film provokes from its audience is less about the horrors depicted on screen than it is about its characters’ inhumane lack of response to them. To Commandant Höss and his family, the rising smoke and muted cries next door prove easy to ignore in the same way that we might tune out the hum of ongoing traffic.
Jonathan Glazer has described The Zone of Interest — his fourth directorial feature and his first in 10 years — as being a tale of two films: the one you see and the one you hear. We are never shown the horrific depictions of violence we have become conditioned to expect from Holocaust dramas, nor are we ever given a direct glimpse inside the concentration camp. The film’s expert sound design, along with the deeply distressing smoke stacks that linger throughout the background of the film, provide more than enough material to let your imagination run wild.
The Zone of Interest depicts the manifestation of evil in one of its most pernicious forms: indifference. The ways in which human beings compartmentalize the world around them, ignoring the suffering of others while justifying their own inaction. As unsettling as it is to watch the Höss family laugh, bicker, or tend to their garden as if nothing were amiss, it becomes infinitely more so when you find yourself lulled into the film’s disquietingly measured pace. Glazer’s disciplined insistence on denying you any glimpse of the atrocities next door forces you to grapple with the cognitive dissonance with which we all engage, albeit to a less overtly despicable extent.
As a piece of technical filmmaking, The Zone of Interest is undeniable. Glazer presents each unfathomably evil mundanity with as objective a lens as possible, even going so far as to record much of the action using meticulously placed hidden cameras operated by remote control. Such an approach avoids the trap of over-stylizing its presentation of the Holocaust while allowing its actors to breathe life to Glazer’s script without any semblance of artificiality. The brief moments of subjectivity which Glazer allows — most notably in the film’s final moments — will undoubtedly leave the most lasting impression.
Perhaps the most impactful depiction of events of the Holocaust outside of Schindler’s List, The Zone of Interest is a truly brilliant piece of filmmaking. A viscerally unpleasant experience by design, Glazer has crafted a vital artistic document that will be sure to spark discussion and debate for years to come.
Rating: Loved It
The Zone of Interest will be in theaters on December 8
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