‘The Zone of Interest’ Review: Jonathan Glazer's Latest Confronts the Ultimate Evils of Humanity
Courtesy of A24.
**Spoiler Alert**
Recent winner of the Grand Prix at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, The Zone of Interest begins with a simple title card that slowly fades to a black screen, lasting for long minutes and layered with the beginnings of one of the most terrifying film scores of recent memory. The next shot is a tableau of a picturesque German family sunbathing on the shores of a placid river. This initial juxtaposition sets the stage for Jonathan Glazer's latest, one of the most disturbing and ambitious films of our time. Liberally adapted from the 2014 novel of the same name by the late-Martin Amis, The Zone of Interest concentrates on the domestic life of Rudolf Höss –– the longest-running commandant at Auschwitz-Birkenau –– and his wife Hedwig's pursuit of the perfect German life according to their Führer. Mesmerizing and experiential through its audacious construction, The Zone of Interest takes a wholly new perspective on Holocaust cinema through its clear-cut decisions to focus on the lives just beyond the walls of actual hell on earth.
Rudolf Höss lives adjacent to the tall barbed wire borders of Auschwitz with his wife Hedwig and their many children. In a newly built residence made to house SS officers who work at the camp, Hedwig devotes her purpose to creating their family's idyllic domestic life in consonance with Nazi values. This suburban fantasy could uncannily be placed anywhere in the Western world of the mid-20th century, with Hedwig's day-to-day being consumed by tending to the garden, hosting birthday parties for her children, and gossiping with the other officer's wives. The Höss family owes its prosperity to the atrocities happening within the camp's walls but are oblivious of ever accepting such reality, raising their children in a world that completely disregards the horrors happening next door. The Zone of Interest finds its hyper-focused perspective on this Aryan illusion of the Höss's lives, refusing to enter Auschwitz and visually confront such evil with its gaze. The film's observational vision only pivots to full domestic drama when Rudolf is reassigned to another camp. This sends Hedwig into total hysteria as she feels the equilibrium of her home life will be shattered by moving away from, as they would put it, their "paradise garden."
Courtesy of A24.
In the role of Rudolf, German actor Christian Friedel (The White Ribbon, 13 Minutes) captures the detached and debauched characterization presented in The Zone of Interest's source material. However, the novel focuses more on his descent into madness from his extended time in charge of the selections at Auschwitz. As Glazer's direction steers clear of that emotional perspective of the novel to deliver something much more distant, Friedel's icy –– at times introspective –– performance aligns perfectly. As the patriarch of the Höss family, Rudolf's actions exemplify his disengagement from living a domestic life of any decency, particularly through his sexual affair with one of the camp's female inmates, only seeming to reach any empathetic level of shame during the film's last moments.
An actor on everyone's minds at Cannes this year, Sandra Hüller, who also impressed with her leading role in Anatomy of a Fall, plays Hedwig in a part that completely diverges from her character in the book, with a name change from Hannah that aligns itself much more with her German heritage. Hüller's performance is by far the standout in The Zone of Interest: terrifyingly conveying all of the pride and duty felt by wives and mothers of the Third Reich. Talking in the garden one afternoon, Hedwig gushes as she remarks, "Rudi calls me the Queen of Auschwitz." Hedwig makes her way through her home each day with a dedicated calculation, issuing orders and raising her children, never forgetting the perverse sense of privilege proposed to the German people by the Nazis. Hüller embodies this entitlement with an intensely layered and physical presence that is impossible to overlook. When Rudolf finally shares with Hedwig that he will be relocated to a new position, Hedwig shows one of her only moments of fragility, flying into a total rage and absolutely refusing to leave their flourishing abode, referencing the Reich's concept of Lebensraum: "This is our living space!" For many, the formal structure and innovation of the film may be what is most significant. Yet, the eerily naturalistic central performances work with equal effort to depict The Zone of Interest's fascinating explorations of humanity's darkest corners.
Courtesy of A24.
Glazer's remarkable accomplishments with the innovative framework and tone in The Zone of Interest hauntingly examine humanity's lasting connections to acts of total atrocity and our even more hideous efforts to disregard them. By refusing to enter the camp,(besides one jaw-dropping, fourth-wall-breaking scene,) the director captures the sickening sense of denial many of the SS felt towards their violent actions. In many ways, The Zone of Interest serves as the antithesis to Son of Saul, the entirely immersive 2015 Holocaust drama that also was awarded the Grand Prix at Cannes. The terror just beyond the walls at the border of the Höss estate is continuously impressed upon audiences, but it has become customary to the film's central characters and their everyday lives, forming the film's innately affecting dread. The Zone of Interest never strays from its clinical structure, which manifests the industrial architecture of The Final Solution in almost every scene and craft.
In his first-time collaboration with the Academy Award-nominated Polish cinematographer, Łukasz Żal (Ida, Cold War,) Glazer creates a minimalist visual language brimming with intention in The Zone of Interest. Nearly devoid of color, almost in connection to his other work, Żal captures the orderly austerity of the Höss household, emphasizing sharp angles and straight lines that communicate with the industrial organization of the Nazi Regime. According to the film's Cannes press conference, Glazer and Żal utilized a multiple-camera system with remote operations, "positioning the cameras in such a way that they do not interrupt the natural flow" of the Höss's domestic space where most of the film plays out. With a bare-bones crew and small, hidden cameras, the movie's performances can exist in a state of almost uninterrupted reality, adding to the mesmeric elements of such an unlikely domestic drama. In addition, the cameras remain quite stationary, with characters entering and exiting the frames of rooms lit only with natural light sources. Moments of experimental flourish are also present, virtually destabilizing audiences when they may get too comfortable with the narrative progression. These choices work together to create a timeless visual aesthetic that reinforces The Zone of Interest's originality.
Sound design is featured as one of The Zone of Interest's most intriguing crafts, assaultively permeating each frame of the work and contributing staggeringly to its disturbing atmosphere. Layers of sound infiltrate every scene: trains moving through the camp, the omnipresent sound of the crematorium fires at work, gunshots, and faint screams. While these noises prove utterly chilling, it is even more frightening that the Höss clan has become numbed to their power. Again, the sound is another feature that donates to the film's oscillation between deep engrossment and distancing horror. In their second collaboration with Glazer after 2014's Under the Skin, Mica Levi once again serves up a richly nuanced soundtrack that initiates the movie's dreadful terror in the title card and is then sparingly but efficiently utilized throughout. Listening closely, petrified cries are layered on each track, producing a profoundly nauseating score.
Courtesy of A24.
As Glazer has stated, The Zone of Interest concentrates on the "capacity within each of us for violence." That sentiment is enough reason for the film to exist as a crucial exploration of humanity in contemporary times, especially as marginalized communities continue to experience repression and violence across the globe. World cinema has raised questions about the ethical responsibility or purpose of creating films centered around the Holocaust. Still, even those skeptics can understand the cutting-edge filmmaking made by Glazer and his team on The Zone of Interest. Coming out of Cannes, the film was one of the best received by critics and will likely continue to receive fervent praise as it is reintroduced to audiences on the fall festival circuit. As the distributor, A24 faces unique challenges in marketing for a theatrical release and an awards push, considering how the movie's specific sensibilities may be challenging for mainstream audiences. In addition, A24 has less experience with foreign language works, and The Zone of Interest's German language could prove a new obstacle in their marketing strategy. Regardless of its future awards impact or theatrical success, The Zone of Interest is already destined to be an essential film in the history of Holocaust cinema.