The Zone of Interest (A- or 3.5/4 stars)
British filmmaker Jonathan Glazer's harrowing Holocaust drama, 'The Zone of Interest' {which just received 5 well-deserved Academy Award nominations - including Best Picture & Director}, is cold, clinical, but pretty darn great. Most movies are made for entertainment, while some are made to educate or stun; this film absolutely falls into the latter category. Loosely adapted from a 2014 novel, the plot follows the superficially mundane lives of Auschwitz S.S. Commandant, Rudolf Hoss (Christian Friedl, stellar), his vain wife, Hedwig (Sandra Huller, superb in this yr.'s Anatomy of a Fall, as well) & their 5 children; who currently live in a sprawling villa that is directly adjacent to the infamous concentration camp in bucolic Western Poland.
The story begins with a pastoral scene as the Hoss family enjoys a picnic on the riverside. Once home, they appear gleefully unaware of the inhumanity & genocide happening RIGHT next-door -- despite the muffled ambient sound of rumbling gunshots, discernible cries, barking dogs, & roars of the raging crematorium fires. When her husband brings home personal items confiscated from Jewish prisoners {who arrive by trains}, narcissistic Hedwig nabs a fur coat, tries it on, & is elated to find that it perfectly fits her. As a bonus, she finds lipstick in the pocket; additionally, one of her sons ardently collects gold teeth. Tending to the swimming pool, her gardens, and the greenhouses nourished by human ash ... Hedwig is so in love with her current residence that - when Rudolf is transferred to a faraway camp - she absolutely insists on staying in her 'dream life' just outside the pits of Hell.
The Hoss family embodied Nazi values; emphasizing sociopathic tendencies as opposed to common sense about what they were doing for Adolf Hitler. All of the Hoss brood are vile, but focus is on Hedwig so much so that it should go without question to note just how deplorable Rudolf really was. He is given a somewhat muted edit in the film; not empathetic, mind you, but we see him a bit subdued, and even retching -- perhaps showing us that deep down inside, what we was doing to the Jews may have been on his conscience. He was, after all, responsible for the murder of 1.1 million people.
Jonathan Glazer chooses to present the ghastliness of what happens on the other side of the concentration camp wall OFF-camera for the movie's duration. Instead, we kinda sorta HEAR it all; which actually strengthens impact of The Zone of Interest. If anything, hearing the atrocities off-camera presents a more effective presentation rather than looking at overt gore -- the result is eerier. Oscar-nominated Polish cinematographer Lukasz Zal provides great beauty in his shots, but they are punctuated by ghoulish images of crematorium smokestacks in the corners of the screen; or flowers surrounded by ashes; or children romping as a train full of prisoners enters the frame. All of these images mixed with the horrific noises we hear in the distance and blended with Mica Levi's thoroughly discordant music soundtrack throughout the film make this a highly unique viewing experience.
Christian Friedl gives a chilling portrait of Rudolf, who follows instructions for committing genocide just as calmly as if he were, say, running a textile mill. And Hedwig Hoss' ability to willingly ignore what is happening on the other side of the concentration camp wall is a reminder that evil doesn't have to be a person ordering the deaths; she can be sitting down to dinner with her kids, gently threatening her Jewish maid, showing her baby the flowers outside ... and be never-the-less evil. She is conceited, manipulative, & wholly guilty in a non-direct way. Rudolf was hanged in 1947, while his wife, Hedwig, managed to remarry & live in America until her death in 1989 -- figures she'd find a way to evade comeuppance.
'The Zone of Interest' examines the ordinary existence of people who are complicit in horrendous crimes. To this, Jonathan Glazer permeates his film with timely relevance. Back in the 1940s, while these appalling crimes were afflicting humanity, so many citizens either remained blissfully unaware, passively concerned, OR firm in their "well, I don't see anything wrong, here" stances. Today, that is evidenced by everyone's detached, nonchalant-ness to everything from weather catastrophes {floods, fires, storms}, to refugees, to copious school shootings, to the wars in Ukraine/Israel, and beyond. "Oh, what a shame. But that'll all sort itself out" -- talk about normalizing the horror. 'TZOI' is effectively disturbing, and powerful in its depiction of evil.
The story begins with a pastoral scene as the Hoss family enjoys a picnic on the riverside. Once home, they appear gleefully unaware of the inhumanity & genocide happening RIGHT next-door -- despite the muffled ambient sound of rumbling gunshots, discernible cries, barking dogs, & roars of the raging crematorium fires. When her husband brings home personal items confiscated from Jewish prisoners {who arrive by trains}, narcissistic Hedwig nabs a fur coat, tries it on, & is elated to find that it perfectly fits her. As a bonus, she finds lipstick in the pocket; additionally, one of her sons ardently collects gold teeth. Tending to the swimming pool, her gardens, and the greenhouses nourished by human ash ... Hedwig is so in love with her current residence that - when Rudolf is transferred to a faraway camp - she absolutely insists on staying in her 'dream life' just outside the pits of Hell.
The Hoss family embodied Nazi values; emphasizing sociopathic tendencies as opposed to common sense about what they were doing for Adolf Hitler. All of the Hoss brood are vile, but focus is on Hedwig so much so that it should go without question to note just how deplorable Rudolf really was. He is given a somewhat muted edit in the film; not empathetic, mind you, but we see him a bit subdued, and even retching -- perhaps showing us that deep down inside, what we was doing to the Jews may have been on his conscience. He was, after all, responsible for the murder of 1.1 million people.
Jonathan Glazer chooses to present the ghastliness of what happens on the other side of the concentration camp wall OFF-camera for the movie's duration. Instead, we kinda sorta HEAR it all; which actually strengthens impact of The Zone of Interest. If anything, hearing the atrocities off-camera presents a more effective presentation rather than looking at overt gore -- the result is eerier. Oscar-nominated Polish cinematographer Lukasz Zal provides great beauty in his shots, but they are punctuated by ghoulish images of crematorium smokestacks in the corners of the screen; or flowers surrounded by ashes; or children romping as a train full of prisoners enters the frame. All of these images mixed with the horrific noises we hear in the distance and blended with Mica Levi's thoroughly discordant music soundtrack throughout the film make this a highly unique viewing experience.
Christian Friedl gives a chilling portrait of Rudolf, who follows instructions for committing genocide just as calmly as if he were, say, running a textile mill. And Hedwig Hoss' ability to willingly ignore what is happening on the other side of the concentration camp wall is a reminder that evil doesn't have to be a person ordering the deaths; she can be sitting down to dinner with her kids, gently threatening her Jewish maid, showing her baby the flowers outside ... and be never-the-less evil. She is conceited, manipulative, & wholly guilty in a non-direct way. Rudolf was hanged in 1947, while his wife, Hedwig, managed to remarry & live in America until her death in 1989 -- figures she'd find a way to evade comeuppance.
'The Zone of Interest' examines the ordinary existence of people who are complicit in horrendous crimes. To this, Jonathan Glazer permeates his film with timely relevance. Back in the 1940s, while these appalling crimes were afflicting humanity, so many citizens either remained blissfully unaware, passively concerned, OR firm in their "well, I don't see anything wrong, here" stances. Today, that is evidenced by everyone's detached, nonchalant-ness to everything from weather catastrophes {floods, fires, storms}, to refugees, to copious school shootings, to the wars in Ukraine/Israel, and beyond. "Oh, what a shame. But that'll all sort itself out" -- talk about normalizing the horror. 'TZOI' is effectively disturbing, and powerful in its depiction of evil.