“The Zone of Interest” (2023)
“Paradise” at the Gates of Hell.
Winner of two Oscars from five nominations at the 2024 Academy Awards, the fourth film in the cinematic directing career of London born filmmaker Jonathan Glazer couldn’t be any further removed from his debut film “Sexy Beast” in 2000 and very definitely falls into the cliched category of “not for everyone”. The portents for this disturbing film on the mechanics of murder and the cold disconnection from all concerned in the horrific holocaust at the Auschwitz concentration camp in World War II begin from the very first frames of the film and a three minute continuous black screen that eventually slowly dissolves both the title of the film and into two of the many major themes of the film, that of long distanced shots rather than intimate close ups and background noise and here immediately birdsong, the sounds of nature and the joyous sounds of a large family enjoying the splendour of an idyllic afternoon of sunshine beside a vast lake. The film continues in this vein largely throughout the 105 minute running time with close ups an exception rather than a rule and especially the background sounds or images: of barking dogs, gunshots, the screams from distressed families or the billowing smoke from trains arriving and departing from Auschwitz dominant and set against the “paradise garden” and “dream life” of the “Queen of Auschwitz” Hedwig Höss (Sandra Hüller) and husband and camp commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel).
Based loosely upon the 2014 novel of the same name written by Martin Amis and in German, Polish and Yiddish with English subtitles, I saw “The Zone of Interest” as a film of constant juxtapositions between the huge opulent house and garden and “the Jews are on the other side of the wall” as coldly described by Hedwig to her mother. Responding to her mother’s disgust at the servants scurrying around her dream home, her daughter reassures her that they are “local girls” as opposed to Jews from the camp on the other side of the imposing wall that provides both a backdrop and a crude juxtaposition between the horrific actions taking place on the other side of that wall and the children playing in the swimming pool inside an extravagant garden full of warmth, life and colour and seemingly an entire world away. In this colourful world life is as perfect and dreamlike as Hedwig could possibly wish it to be yet yards away but never, ever shown, are families screaming for their lives and the lives of their loved ones as gunshots pepper an acrid air full of the smoke of the trains you never see but hear constantly.
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Together with the success of bagging an Oscar win for “Best International Feature Film”, triumphing over the incredible “Society of the Snow” in the process (my spoiler free review of this film can be found within my archives here), the film’s second and final win from five nominations was rightly awarded to Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn for “Best Sound” and for a film largely dependent upon what is heard rather than seen. The soundscape of the film truly is a marvel as described above as a picture is painted through sound and the opening frames of a disturbing film until its final poignant minutes and scenes of a film that will stay with you long after the closing credits.
Thanks for reading. There’s well over 300 individual articles and conservatively double that number in spoiler free film reviews contained within my archives here. Alternatively, here are my three most recently published articles in this genre:
"Oppenheimer" (2023) - Read Along