Release Date – 2nd February 2024, Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 45 minutes, Director – Jonathan Glazer
A Nazi commandant (Christian Friedel) and his wife (Sandra Hüller) try to live their most idyllic life, living next door to Auschwitz.
I’m willing to admit that I’m very likely not the best voice to listen to when it comes to The Zone Of Interest. I’m also in a minority when it comes to the film, largely because I don’t think I entirely understood it. In part because of how difficult it is to connect with the events that are being depicted, you certainly can’t connect with the characters. They’re Nazis unaware of the evil that they’re a part of, made even more concerning when we see the guard towers and gas chambers of Auschwitz peaking over the stone walls of the central family’s garden.
There’s undeniably a haunting nature to seeing the buildings, and hearing the screams and sounds echoing from the distance, looming in the background. We never see the atrocities, but we know they’re there, with constant reminders from the film. Yet, this is a slice-of-life drama following commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his family, living out their peaceful life. He attends meetings and fills out paperwork, his wife, Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) and children attend to and play in the garden. The scenery is bright with the sun frequently shining down – this is the season for family trips to the lake.
Husband and wife, in-between arguing about whether they move away or not or reading Hansel And Gretel to their kids before they go to sleep, discuss their plans for after the war – when everything is over, we’ll farm”. It adds to the mundanity of the lives that are being lived. Throughout I could see what writer-director Jonathan Glazer was trying to do with contrasting the bland every nature of the lives of the Höss family with the unseen horrors which are unfolding in the background, however with the slice-of-life in so much focus it often dominates the overall tone and style at the fore.
There are interesting conversations and sequences here and there, such as Hedwig passionately telling Rudolf she wants to stay in Auschwitz, having built something of a dream life there and not wanting the change. However, while there are interesting points here showing the true level of ignorance to the evil and horror literally next door it was still hard to connect with the film and properly feel the full effect of the tones and themes that it wanted to get across. Again, this is very likely down to me not understanding it and missing out on something. However, while there’s interest in what happens and the angle the film is trying to take it doesn’t always have the intended effect of amplifying the darkness in the background, instead portraying a difficult-to-connect-with slice-of-life drama about Nazis.
There are interesting moments and conversations within The Zone Of Interest, however it never quite gets across the full effect of the horror and darkness lying in the background of this hard-to-connect with slice-of-life drama.
Just A Little Bit Random 