by Eternality Tan

Zone of Interest, The (2023)

One of the most chillingly unique Holocaust films in decades, Glazer’s cold and calculated take on human complicity in enabling atrocities is told from the perspective of a high-ranking Nazi officer raising his family in a luxurious compound built right next to a concentration camp in Auschwitz. 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Review #2,728

Dir. Jonathan Glazer
2023 | UK, Poland | Drama, History | 106 min | 1.78:1 | German, Polish & Yiddish
PG (passed clean) for thematic material, some suggestive material and smoking

Cast: Christian Friedel, Sandra Huller, Medusa Knopf
Plot: The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.
Awards: Won Grand Prize of the Jury, FIPRESCI Prize & Soundtrack Award (Cannes); Won 2 Oscars – Best International Feature & Best Sound; Nom. for 3 Oscars – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay
Distributor: A24

Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Holocaust; Complicity in Atrocity
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse

Viewed: Screener
Spoilers: No

It’s been ten years since Under the Skin (2013), but the arduous wait for Jonathan Glazer’s fourth feature is certainly worth it as the British filmmaker gives us not just one of the best films of the year, but also one of the most chilling and unique Holocaust pictures in decades. 

If Son of Saul (2015) brought relentless, claustrophobic intensity to concentration camp dramas by being entirely shot in long take close-ups, then Glazer’s work here gives us its antithesis, a cold and calculated piece of semi-observational cinema that does not have a single scene of violence. 

In a way, it feels like Michael Haneke but also anti-Haneke, a difficult film to classify.  When the ‘zone’ in The Zone of Interest covers everywhere except the concentration camp, Glazer forces us to endure with abject horror the faint sounds of torture and death lurking behind the walls that separate an extermination camp in Auschwitz and a luxurious compound built just beside it, where the Nazi camp commandant resides. 

“His particular strength is turning theory into practice.”

Glazer’s ‘interest’ is in Commandant Hoss (Christian Friedel, who happened to have made his acting debut in Haneke’s The White Ribbon) and his bourgeois family.  At its core, it’s a story about a father with a responsibility to his wife (a terrific Sandra Huller, who was also in Anatomy of a Fall) and kids. 

Apart from composer Mica Levi’s primal synths that create an unnerving atmosphere, almost the entire film is haunted by a low, rumbling vibration—that is the sound of operating crematoriums nearby. 

It is so apparent yet none of the characters seems to be able to hear it—or perhaps they have chosen not to.  Some people today are not any different; they also choose not to hear. 

The human complicity in enabling atrocities remains unchallenged in the decades since, be it the longstanding oppression of the Palestinians, or the horrendous slavery of cobalt-mining Congolese that powers our rechargeable batteries today.

Grade: A

Trailer:

12 Comments

  7. Unknown's avatar

    Great review once again. I just saw this yesterday and was absolutely amazed by it in every way. A powerful historical drama capturing a genocide in history. I loved the way in which sound was used to convey atrocities not seen. The use of sound reminded me of Oppenheimer that was also winner this year of Oscars. My thoughts on Oppenheimer:

    “Oppenheimer” (2023)- Movie Review

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