THE ZONE OF INTEREST – Review by Diane Carson
In 2023, it is a daunting challenge to present a cinematic experience that does justice to the Holocaust without repeating previous, worthy considerations of the unfathomable horrors. Stretching back to Alain Resnais’ 1956 Night and Fog, important fiction and nonfiction works have honored the victims’ memories amidst various dramatizations of Nazi inhumanity. How, then, does a director tackle this subject anew?
Writer/director Jonathan Glazer has forged a new approach in The Zone of Interest, a narrative of overwhelming, astonishing restraint. Loosely based on Martin Amis’ 2014 novel, Glazer’s narrative enters the pantheon of unforgettable films on the Holocaust, adding another chapter to our understanding of the banality of evil.
The story takes place adjacent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where Nazi soldiers and their families celebrate the commandant’s birthday, dispute assignments, tend their gardens, choose from victims’ salvaged clothes, and play games, the Holocaust ever a backdrop. Commandant Rudolf Höss, his wife Hedwig, and their children pursue quite ordinary lies, indifferent to the world behind the wall that divides them from the smokestacks, the occasional sounds of trains and gunshots, and the production of the ash that used to nourish their plants.
In a Film Watch interview at Cannes, published for this year’s Telluride Film Festival where I experienced the power of this film, Glazer explained the lengthy genesis of the project, his two years of research that led to a visit to Auschwitz. There, he reports being struck by the proximity of the camp of Commandant Rudolf Höss’ house, his family, and their gardens, “an idyll that they’ve made for themselves built quite literally on the bones of the victims, with the camp on the other side.” With help from researchers at the Auschwitz Museum archives plus access to other organizations’ documents, Glazer scrutinized testimonials of anyone who worked for or had knowledge of Höss and that community. For example, their gardener, a WWII survivor, mentioned overhearing Rudolf and Hedwig arguing about Rudolf’s transfer/promotion. As depicted in the film, and staggering in its content, Hedwig resented any move, she so cherished their life at Auschwitz.
Building on the data he gathered, Glazer decided to portray actual individuals and, further enhancing authenticity, to shoot, in part, at Auschwitz. Chilling in its presentation, cinematographer Łukasz Żal keeps the camera at a distance, resisting melodramatic moments or sensationalistic ones, though there is never any moral ambiguity. Superb performances (especially by Christian Friedel as Rudolf Höss and Sandra Hüller as Hedwig) unfolded before cameras embedded in the location, improvisation encouraged with, as Glazer noted, he and the crew making themselves “as absent as possible.” The effect is, again in Glazer’s words, that “we show these people as people and not as monsters. The great, great crime and tragedy is that human beings did this to other human beings. We think we can never behave this way. I think we should be less certain.”
The final, unexpected scene (no spoilers) will intensify the effect. It left me speechless and unable to move for many minutes. This year’s Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix awardee and without question among the best films of this year, The Zone of Interest is in German and Polish with English subtitles.
