The Zone of Interest

<b>INT. LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS - NIGHT</b>

Auschwitz is the location of the world's most unforgivable crime where humanity lost itself. An area forever marked with the horrors of xenophobia and a story that filmmakers continuously attempt to display on the screen. While holocaust cinema isn't being worked into the ground like other genres, there hasn't been a breath of fresh air for a while. 

<i>The Zone of Interest</i> is that breath.

From the get-go, you're engulfed back into Auschwitz, except in this film, there is a gorgeous house bordering the concentration camp. Immediately this large grey wall hiding the atrocities is juxtaposed with the family's beautiful garden, which their mother wishes to continue improving, never mind ...

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"The Zone of Interest is one of the most memorable, remarkable films of the last few years. Jonathan Glazer achieves a fascinating dissociation between the general tone of the movie and the mundane actions of the protagonist family, portraying the unbelievably shocking global apathy in the face of the greatest crime in human history.

An extremely complicated viewing, excruciatingly frustrating, full of negative emotions, and not very accessible to the general public. The atmospheric, static cinematography, together with the powerful score and especially the background sounds that will haun...

Christian Friedel is quite effective in his portrayal of the Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss here. He and wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) offer us one of the most stark contradictions I think I've ever seen on screen. The beautifully manicured garden of a delightful family home with an unique next door neighbour. That would be the Auschwitz concentration camp of which he was in control. We follow his selection to run the place, his increasing role in implementing the extermination processes and then gradually, as he is promoted again, their realisation that the idyllic life they want for themselves is doomed. It's the brutal comparisons that work best here. We don't really see anything graphic on screen, that's all left to our already well enough d...

Some movies just have to be seen, even if they make for a difficult watch, and writer-director Jonathan Glazers latest is one of those pictures. While this offering is at times a bit uneven, when its on, its on, leaving a powerfully indelible mark on viewers, one that you feel in your gut and your heart and cant get out of your mind. The film tells the unnerving story of the family of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel). They reside directly next door to the infamous Nazi concentration camp, somehow managing to live seemingly normal lives in the shadow of this horrendously notorious facility. Whats most chilling, however, is that the family seems largely oblivious to the atrocities taking place on their doorstep, focusing m...

Even in the middle of a war, there are two world's that exist side by side. One of ever day life. Raising kids. Working a job. Gardening. Having lunch with friends.

Yet...over the wall is horrors.

Rudolf Hoss is a commandant at Auschwitz during World War II. His wife Hedwig, played by Sandra Huller, and his children all live in the family homes over the wall from the camp. They live a normal life, and Hedwig prides herself on the beautiful flowers and swimming pool to enjoy.

And just over the wall Jews are be incinerated.

When Rudolf gets a transfer, Hedwig's life goes into turmoil at the thought of leaving the lovely home she loves.

And just over the wall Jews are being incinerated.

There's a haunting scene that sho...

The Zone of Interest is a 2023 historical drama film written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, that based herself on the life that Rudolf Höss, Nazi commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp from 1940-43 must had in that time in his residence, just at the side of the camp.

It premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, winning both the Grand Prix and FIPRESCI Prize. For the 96th Academy Awards, it received 5 nominations (including Best Motion Picture, Best International Feature Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound) - for me best sound is almost a win, and have great chances for best international movie and adapted screenplay.

Both Christian Friedel as Rudolf Höss and ...

The Zone of Interest takes the notion of the "banality of evil", back to its true origin, the family home.

All human evil starts with a home. In this instance, the home of a concentration camp commander, Rudolf Höss, of Auschwitz and his family. The laid back ease of middle class family life, of an upper management level Nazi, is juxtaposed with suffering of people (Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, political dissidents, religious minorities and yes even some allied soldiers, who were prisoners of war), who quite literally reside, over the fence, in the concentration camp, Hoss oversees.

This is a quietly horrifying film where the an idyllic and wholly familiar family setting is punctured, by the occasional sounds of misery and death, eman...

A subtle horrific historic narrative of the Holocaust.

So much potential but very disappointing.

Not particularly my type of movie, with it being more 'artsy' than anything else, but I can still acknowledge it as being good.

It's miles better, even for someone like me with the aforementioned, than it probably has any right to be. It does, in my eyes, start off too slowly, though the longer it went on the more I could appreciate it - particularly from a filmmaking perspective. As you would expect with the subject matter, 'The Zone of Interest' makes for uncomfortable but important viewing.

Sandra Hüller has relatively little to work with, though still manages to put in a standout showing. I remember seeing her about during the award season when this movie was released, based on this I am expecting an even better performance in 'Anatomy of a Fall' - gotta get that watched soon!

Exceptionally disturbing, with an undertone of horror and dread that you cannot quite pinpoint. At every moment, this film indeed does draw your Zone of Interest away from who would typically be considered the main characters, to the background. Sometimes it is a background visual of the fence of Auschwitz, or a sound eminating from over that fence. But often it is so much more miniscule, items and actions that would usually be ignored - lipstick, for instance.

The creators have done a truly moving job explaining the gut-punch feeling and disgust of the time period without being actually visually violent. Instead, they let your mind wander, which I find to be potentially more emotionally challenging.