Film review ‘THE ZONE OF INTEREST’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’

British director Jonathon Glazer likes to unsettle his audience from the get-go.  The beginning of his latest film The Zone of Interest, involves five minutes of blank screen with ominous atmospheric music and ambient noise.  Eventually we see a lush, verdant riverbank with people lounging in the sun as if in some vision of Eden.  It soon becomes clear this is the unassuming face on an unimaginable but all too real horror, one that at first seems utterly bizarre but may well be closer to fact than we would like to imagine.  Disturbingly, the people depicted are the family of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoss (Christian Friedel) who live in a picture postcard suburban home right next to the death camp.  Here, the family meticulously and it seems obliviously, go about their domestic lives, the father heading next door to work and the mother tending to the children.

The juxtaposition of this domestic idyll and the sounds of industrialised horror and distant images of chimneys belching smoke is chilling.  There are no scenes of prisoners in the camp, the horror is mostly conveyed through the film’s disturbing sound design.  Similarly, the scenes of a nazi summit Hoss attends, in which the various obergruppenfuhrers discuss camp and transportation logistics like corporate executives, is horrifying in its coldness, much like the brilliant 2022 film The Conference.

Glazer, for the most part, gives the film a very matter-of-fact tone with sparse dialogue and images of mundane domestic routine such as children playing and the parents discussing home renovations, gardening and even spa trips to Italy.  He still forges a distinct visual style, though, with meticulous framing that occasionally recalls Stanley Kubrick.  At times, he adopts a more expressive approach to show how shards of realisation puncture their fantasy world.  These include surreal moments such as a ghostly night vision sequence in which the family’s young daughter scatters sugar around the camp as a gift for prisoners.  The scene eerily recalls the sort of disturbing Germanic fairytales with which she would have grown up.

Glazer is careful not to depict these people as psychopaths and monsters but the product of a perverse belief system normalised through propaganda and an economy that profited from the enslavement of others. To depict something this horrific in such a banal manner is a very tricky task and at times we can feel the artifice of movie making but for the most part it’s hideously convincing.

The implications of this film are not just historical or ideological but relevant to the entire world today, as the privileged live beside millions in poverty and political oppression.  Understandably, this sort of film won’t be to all tastes but for those who appreciate confronting movies, The Zone of Interest offers a powerful message and a stunning piece of cinematic art.

Nick’s rating: ****1/2

Genre: Drama/ Historical/ War.

Classification: M.

Director(s): Jonathon Glazer.

Release date: 27th Feb 2024.

Running time: 105 mins.

Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.

 

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