Review of The Zone of Interest
The Zone of Interest (2024) Dir. Jonathan Glazer
The Zone of Interest may stand as one of the most disturbing narrative films about the Holocaust ever produced, yet it achieves this without ever dramatizing the horrors that went on within the concentration camps.
Based on Martin Amis’ novel of the same name, the film follows Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), the longest serving commandant of Auschwitz, who lives just beyond the wall of the camp with his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) and their three children.
Much of the discussion ahead of the film’s release has focused on the ‘banality of evil’ – the idea that evil is committed by ordinary people who are somehow unaware of the consequences. What Jonathan Glazer does here is far more impactful. He shows Höss – and his family – to be fully aware of what is going on just a few yards beyond his home, and instead shows how evil actions can be done by outwardly normal and respectable people. A far scarer concept that still places the full responsibility on the perpetrators.
Perhaps what is most disturbing is how the characters react to minor issues throughout. Seeing a man responsible for some of the worst atrocities in human history complain about the treatment of his family’s garden, or berate his staff because he found human remains in the river where his family plays – his issue being the quality of work from those in the camp, not the loss of life – is deeply uncomfortable.
Glazer’s film has been meticulously crafted. The use of multiple, continuously running cameras throughout the house bring naturalistic performances from the cast, who avoid unnecessary mannerisms or any camp, villainous behaviour throughout. When we are outside the house, Glazer is careful with how the camp is framed in the background. Often only seen during the happiest moments for the Höss family, Auschwitz is present through glimpses of the watch towers, or the trains entering the camp and it becomes an unbearably claustrophobic thing, bearing down on the audience even when it is not in sight.
This is, in part, due to sound designer Johnnie Burn, who interjects Mica Levi’s score with a truly unsettling array of diegetic sound – always providing just enough so that the audience remain unconsciously aware of what is happening.
Later in the film, Höss is pulled away from Auschwitz to oversee operations across all the concentration camps, including the transportation of Hungarian Jews. This feels less oppressive, but continues to add to the horror, as Höss chairs meetings that will lead to the deaths of millions with the same pride that a CEO might show when announcing profit margins.
Glazer uses this final act to experiment with the style of the film as well. Inverted, black and white scenes show a young woman hiding food for the prisoners in Auschwitz; moments which are callously called back to with throwaway lines about shooting prisoners who were fighting over apples. At the very end, Glazer also cuts to documentary-style footage of janitors cleaning the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. It’s a fourth-wall breaking moment suggesting that Höss may be aware that he is on the wrong side of history, a point that only makes the rest of the film more disturbing.
The Zone of Interest is a formally excellent film. Its cold, objective style perfectly marrying with the awful content. It holds the audience at a distance. Yet it’s difficult to recommend. It is a film that feels important and is very aware of this. It has not been made to entertain but to highlight how very normal people, with very normal lives, were behind a devastating event that still resonates today.
★★★★★
5 / 5
Matthew Tilt
Twitter @Matthew_Tilt
