Title – The Zone of Interest (2023) 

Director – Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin) 

Cast – Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller

Plot – Explores the day to day lives of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (Fridel) and his wife Hedwig (Hüller) as they attempt to keep a sense of normality about their family life living next door to a concentration camp. 

“The life we enjoy is very much worth the sacrifice”

Review by Eddie on 10/04/2024

One of 2023’s most talked about features and the recipient of the Academy Awards Best International Feature Film award (as well as a well deserved award for Best Sound), Jonathan Glazer’s first film since his controversial 2013 film Under the Skin is a World War 2 film with a difference, a haunting experience that explores the mindset and everyday occurrences that often go hand in hand with the horrors and atrocities of a period of war. 

Based on the true story of Nazi family the Höss’s, who lead by husband/father and Auschwitz commandant Rudolf and fiery mother/wife Hedwig lived a seemingly idyllic lifestyle in the heat of the WW2 period where their family home was stationed right alongside the Auschwitz concentration camp that saw some of the most evil acts ever committed against humanity take place within its confines. 

With Glazer’s production team shooting the film in a hidden camera format with no crew visible on set when the actors were at work, being described as “Big Brother” like by Glazer, Zone of Interest is unlike any such film I can recall seeing and while much of what horrifies in the film remains off screen, with the films unique sound design playing a major part in proceedings here, there’s a constant feeling of unease on display here at just what these humans were able to look past as they attempted to do their jobs and live out their lives around the trauma of what surrounded them. 

Utilising this approach that includes a distinct lack of cinematic flourishes and spectacle allows Interest to play out in an organic and often memorizing fashion that allows Friedel and Anatomy of a Fall breakout star Hüller to bring the Höss’s to life in ways you wouldn’t expect possible, transporting us back to a time and place history will never forget and allowing us to examine it in a whole new way than we’ve done before. 

If there was an obvious element to focus in on with Glazer’s film that perhaps weakens the experience overall, it’s that from very early on we are abundantly clear of the naïve and terrifying mindset of our main characters and then for the next hour and a half we cover familiar ground and while the film still has some shocks and surprises within in, a terrifying fade to red and some haunting segments that take place utilising infrared spring to mind, there is a feeling that creeps into Glazer’s feature as time wears on that we begin to get caught in a loop that in its later stages looses some of its power. 

Culminating in one of the most memorable and shattering final segments of any film of the recent era, Interest is still a film of much power and harbours an important message all told by a director who constantly surprises in his approach to the craft of filmmaking and how we tell and consume stories. 

Final Say – 

An entirely unique approach to telling what could have otherwise been a straightforward World War 2 biopic/historical drama, The Zone of Interest may not be an easy watch but it’s a powerful one, exploring topics in a fresh and important light. 

4 family picnics out of 5