The Zone of Interest

The soundtrack to this film is a vital and innovative element to the narrative. Straight off the bat, director Jonathan Glazer informs the audience of its importance by presenting audio to a blank screen, as if to say, “listen!” (This introduction was deemed too long and unusual for some movie-goers who lost patience and left the theatre, which was a shame.)
The visuals open with an idyllic family setting of a picnic by a river. As the plot unfolds, we realize that the father is Rudolf Hoss, Commandant of Auschwitz – in short, it’s a Nazi Family, including the wife, Helga, who are enjoying the summer bliss.
The Hoss family live right by the ‘Zone of Interest” – a Nazi euphemism for a concentration camp. The family’s domestic life is pleasant and privileged, which is in stark contrast to the horrors taking place next door. Thus, we see a flower garden versus the camp chimneys belching out their ghastly smoke. A children’s garden party against the sound of execution. Human teeth in a bright, flowing stream. Cinematographer, Lukasz Zal, captures the precision, the order, the beauty of the Hoss’s domestic environment exquisitely. Mica Levi, the composer, and sound designer, Maximilian Behrens, evoke terror and horror juxtaposed against this ‘picturesqueness’ in a way that’s truly chilling.
The power in this film is that it poses the question, how can people live cheek by jowl with such horrors and carry on their ‘normal’ life as if were not happening? (Dare we ask ourselves the same question,  as we sit in the dark with ice creams?)
Actors Christian Friedel and Sandra Huller turn in stellar, unsettling performances as this ‘power’ couple. As Rudolf, Friedel delivers heart-stopping cruelty alongside an emotional and tender farewell to his beloved horse. Huller as Hedwig, gardens her flowers lovingly, yet she greedily accepts the loot from deceased Jewish victims. She tries on lipstick, a mink coat – all free booty! At first, we think that the Hoss’s domestic staff are just servants, until we observe the terror that underlies even their simplest domestic transactions, such as balancing a drink on a drink tray. Witness Helga’s callous threat to her maid at breakfast: “I could have my husband spread your ashes across the fields of Babice.”
My God, is it effective acting, screenwriting (Martin Amis, Jonathan Glazer,) and editing (Paul Watts). In fact, apples to the entire cast and crew – because this clever film is a  masterpiece.
(The story’s duality is also presented in the daughter’s dramatic sleepwalking sequences – no spoilers here.)
The film ably addresses the ‘normalisation’ of tyranny, as well as the logistics and planning that went into exterminating not only Jewish people, but also intellectuals, the physically disabled, ethnic minorities, prisoners of religious or political conscience, sexual orientation, etc. That’s the horrific thing, it was state-sanctioned, state-funded and state-organized murder on a massive scale. (Correlations to any modern-day regimes do we think?) Perhaps that’s why it’s so relevant now. This film is stark. It’s important. Thought-provoking and brilliantly delivered.
It’s no surprise that it’s been nominated for five Academy Awards.
RATING: FIVE OSCARS,