The fourth feature from Jonathan Glazer (and his first in a decade), "The Zone of Interest" follows Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, his wife Hedwig, and their children and servants living just over the wall of the concentration camp.
While I count myself a fan of Glazer's previous films (especially "Birth" and "Under the Skin"), this adaptation of Martin Amis's novel is possibly his most potent work to date. Glazer utilizes the notion of "less is more" here to the nth degree; much has been said about the fact that the film never really shows what is occurring on the other side of the wall from the Hösses' lush living quarters, but the intricate sound design and subtle visual cues are left to speak volumes.
On one hand, "The Zone of Interest" is not your typical Holocaust film in the sense that much of the horrors of it are implied. However, by bucking all expectations and merely circling the membrane so to speak, the nucleus of evil becomes more striking than in any other representation I've seen committed to film. Narrative-wise, "The Zone of Interest" largely plays as a languorously-paced family drama, as Rudolf steers his career with the SS while Hedwig tends to the family's domestic slice of paradise.
Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller portray the patriarch and matriarch (Hedwig on one occasion jokes to her mother that they call her "the queen of Auschwitz"), and both performances are as chilling as they are human. The couple's mundane domestic world almost exists in a vacuum, and if it weren't for the auditory (and occasionally visual) grim reminders of what is transpiring in their backyard, one could almost forget what the film is truly about: The Holocaust, yes--but I think that Glazer's message here on a broader level speaks to the human ability to both compartmentalize and normalize evil. Bloodied boots, locomotive exhaust, and erubescent crematory stacks fall into the background, making up a perverse and disturbing tapestry which these characters (based on real historical figures) both live against and, to varying degrees, participate in and create.
When a relocation order is made to Rudolf by the SS, the Hösses' domestic bliss begins to fray, and there are subtle moments in which the real-life horror of the situation appears to penetrate the cores of at least a few of the characters (save Hüller's, who is shown to be covetous and possibly more ruthless than her commandant husband). The younger children of the home, in particular, are shown to be most effected by the atrocities lurking in their backyard, whether they are aware of it or not.
Unfortunately, no amount of human empathy can keep such a machine from pressing on. Hedwig's mother, apparently disturbed by her visit, abruptly leaves in the middle of the night; when the youngest son hears a prisoner over the wall being singled out and ostensibly murdered, he responds by simply closing his bedroom window; when human cremains fill the children's swimming hole, Rudolf ushers them away. The characters in the film never truly have to look, nor are we, the audience, technically allowed to--and that is what I think Glazer's ultimate exercise is here. The Hösses' sprawling garden is placid and beautiful, but a potent sense of rot permeates nonetheless.
While I count myself a fan of Glazer's previous films (especially "Birth" and "Under the Skin"), this adaptation of Martin Amis's novel is possibly his most potent work to date. Glazer utilizes the notion of "less is more" here to the nth degree; much has been said about the fact that the film never really shows what is occurring on the other side of the wall from the Hösses' lush living quarters, but the intricate sound design and subtle visual cues are left to speak volumes.
On one hand, "The Zone of Interest" is not your typical Holocaust film in the sense that much of the horrors of it are implied. However, by bucking all expectations and merely circling the membrane so to speak, the nucleus of evil becomes more striking than in any other representation I've seen committed to film. Narrative-wise, "The Zone of Interest" largely plays as a languorously-paced family drama, as Rudolf steers his career with the SS while Hedwig tends to the family's domestic slice of paradise.
Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller portray the patriarch and matriarch (Hedwig on one occasion jokes to her mother that they call her "the queen of Auschwitz"), and both performances are as chilling as they are human. The couple's mundane domestic world almost exists in a vacuum, and if it weren't for the auditory (and occasionally visual) grim reminders of what is transpiring in their backyard, one could almost forget what the film is truly about: The Holocaust, yes--but I think that Glazer's message here on a broader level speaks to the human ability to both compartmentalize and normalize evil. Bloodied boots, locomotive exhaust, and erubescent crematory stacks fall into the background, making up a perverse and disturbing tapestry which these characters (based on real historical figures) both live against and, to varying degrees, participate in and create.
When a relocation order is made to Rudolf by the SS, the Hösses' domestic bliss begins to fray, and there are subtle moments in which the real-life horror of the situation appears to penetrate the cores of at least a few of the characters (save Hüller's, who is shown to be covetous and possibly more ruthless than her commandant husband). The younger children of the home, in particular, are shown to be most effected by the atrocities lurking in their backyard, whether they are aware of it or not.
Unfortunately, no amount of human empathy can keep such a machine from pressing on. Hedwig's mother, apparently disturbed by her visit, abruptly leaves in the middle of the night; when the youngest son hears a prisoner over the wall being singled out and ostensibly murdered, he responds by simply closing his bedroom window; when human cremains fill the children's swimming hole, Rudolf ushers them away. The characters in the film never truly have to look, nor are we, the audience, technically allowed to--and that is what I think Glazer's ultimate exercise is here. The Hösses' sprawling garden is placid and beautiful, but a potent sense of rot permeates nonetheless.