‘The Zone of Interest’: Choosing Not to See

The detached characters in this atmospheric Holocaust drama are bone-chilling.

Hedwig Höss (Sandra Hüller) enjoys the vegetables growing in her garden, in "The Zone of Interest." A24

PG-13 | 1h 45m | Drama, History, War | Dec. 22, 2023

Loosely based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Martin Amis, British-born writer and director Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” is indeed a rarity: an art-house Holocaust film. It is more than that, of course, but the chilly, austere photography, ambient, dissonant score, and minimalist, emotionally detached dialogue suggests Terrence Malick by way of Stanley Kubrick, and a half-dozen other 1950s Western European neo-realists.

In the book, the identity of the two lead characters were fictionalized versions of Rudolf Höss (pronounced “hess”) and his wife Hedwig. In the movie, Mr. Glazer uses their real names, eliminates a major character, and includes facts not present in the novel. These minor changes transform a slightly vague and ephemeral work of literature into something ominous and disquieting.

Rudolph Höss (Christian Friedel) in front of his home in the evening, in "The Zone of Interest." A24

A high-ranking member of the Third Reich, Höss was the longest-serving Nazi commander of the Auschwitz extermination facility (1940 to late 1943 and mid-1944 to 1945). It was just outside the boundaries of the camp where he, his wife, their five children, domestic employees, and several Jewish slaves were housed.

Paradise Bordering Hell

While far from palatial, the grounds and interior of the Höss residence could be referred to as sprawling. Resting on the banks of the Sola River with impeccably manicured lawns, multiple gardens, a greenhouse, and a swimming pool, it was a relative paradise literally sharing a border with the most infamous and evil death camp in human history.

To drive this contrast home, Mr. Glazer opens the movie with a four-plus minute stretch of black screen accompanied with a slow-building orchestral and choral cacophony of sound followed by the Höss family frolicking in the Sola. Outside of coming into contact with some poison ivy or oak, no one has a care in the world.

The Höss family enjoys a picnic, in "The Zone of Interest." A24

It is during this scene that we see smoke emitting from stacks in the distant sunlit background. For the remainder of the film, every exterior shot repeats similar imagery. Another scene depicting the Höss family and their friends in their backyard shows the exhaust of incoming trains filled with Jewish prisoners just above the top of a tree line heading into the camp.

What’s Yours Is Now Mine

Additional scenes showing Hedwig Höss trying on a confiscated fur coat and gleefully finding hidden gems in Jewish-owned toothpaste tubes speak volumes. The property of captured Jews was automatically transferred to the Nazis.

Hedwig Höss (Sandra Hüller) tries on a fur coat taken from Jews, in "The Zone of Interest." A24

The only scene taking place within the walls of Auschwitz shows Rudolf Höss from the torso up standing still as the screams of Jewish prisoners and gunfire are heard in the background.

What Mr. Glazer has done here might strike some as flip and disrespectful. Although this is true and is totally on the mark, it’s not in the most obvious way. In almost all of previous movies depicting Nazis during the Holocaust, the perpetrators do so with reckless, full-tilt abandonment (“Schindler’s List,” “The Pianist,” “Defiance,” “Inglourious Basterds”) but here it is done with a nonchalant, business-as-usual, casual inevitability.

Déjà Vu

In making his film, Mr. Glazer (“Sexy Beast,” “Birth,” “Under the Skin”) offers us a blindingly obvious example of past abhorrent behavior and, without making it totally obvious, a warning flare of how to not repeat the same mistake. At the time he made it, Mr. Glazer couldn’t have possibly anticipated what has taken place since Oct. 7, 2023.

With the unwarranted and wanton Hamas attack on Israel two months ago, the events depicted in “The Zone of Interest” are eerily prophetic. How could something so abhorrent and unimaginable 80 years ago be supported by so many people worldwide?

The Höss family estate near Auschwitz, in "The Zone of Interest." A24

Sadly, it has.

The persecution of Jews is very real and unfortunately, has become in vogue in certain circles and places of “higher learning,” and it is as equally scary as anything taking place in this film.

What does it say about humanity as a collective, when we “evolved” over 80 or so years only to regress into a state of ignorance and disrepair with such wanton disregard? It’s shameful and embarrassing, to put it mildly. Are we not capable of recognizing past wrongs, and blanket assumptions, and moving forward? Have we so devolved as a society to not recognize such Cro-Magnon mindsets?

We’re entering 2024, people, not 1939. It’s time we started acting like it.

Theatrical poster for "The Zone of Interest." A24

The film is presented in German, Yiddish, and Polish with English subtitles. It opened in New York and Los Angeles on December 15 and nationwide on Dec. 22.

‘The Zone of Interest’ Director: Jonathan Glazer Starring: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes Release Date: Dec. 22, 2023 Rating: 4 out of 5

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