La zona d'interesse

This film was definitely different than I expected. Yes, it's a little slow. But you have to go into the screening not waiting for something big to happen. The whole point of the film is to show us that while all the horrific events of the Holocaust were happening and Jews were being murdered just for existing, there were plenty of folks that lived like everything was normal.

The fact the the Hoss family didn't even register the screams, cries, gunshots, dogs barking and massive amounts of fire and smoke shooting into the air right next door, just shows how self involved, entitled & oblivious they were. Thank goodness for Grandma who realized things were not right even after wondering aloud if her ex employer was "over there."

The most telling bit of action that I thought was genius was the dog, Dilla. The household is calmly going about their days. Servants are stoically doing their jobs, kids are playing and Mom is busy revelling in how great she has it. There's a bit of unrest in the house because of a disturbed sleep-walking daughter and a baby girl that obviously knows this world is f-ed up and is crying nonstop hoping Mom will let her go back into the good place.

But Dilla! She is trying to get anyone's attention! She is running, scratching on doors, whining and barking in every shot. Obviously she is the only one who REALLY hears what's going on next door and knows there are very bad people there. She can hear the cries and screams. Why won't anyone pay attention to her and listen to what she has to say? Somebody pay attention to the dog! Listen to Dilla! She's trying to tell you something and she's the only one that sees the truth.

Director Jonathan Glazer isn't very prolific with only three prior films over the past 23 years, but each is marked by a distinctive vision (SEXY BEAST, BIRTH and UNDER THE SKIN). ZONE OF INTEREST is no different with an even more controlled conception.

Loosely adapting Martin Amis' novel, Glazer creates a setting, a tableu, and never lets go. Opening with a long ominous musical overture by Mica Levi the viewer is plunged into a seemingly tranquil German family home. Uniformed Nazi officers are about, served by compliant women. A commandant, Rudolf Hoss (Christian Friedel) returns home to his family including his wife Hedwig (Sandra Huller, superb as she also was in this year's ANATOMY OF A FALL) and five children. Hedwig's mother, Linna (Imogen Kogge) comes to stay with them. Their yard is idyllic save for a high concrete fence that partially masks an industrial looking building just behind it. Auschwitz.

Lukasz Zal's (IDA, COLD WAR) camera never moves. The set-ups are often at quite a distance, as if it were all a set-piece on a stage. As officers come and go, the viewer overhears snatches of conversation about how to more efficiently run the camps, Rudolf attententively leads the discussions. Hedwig runs the home, with a determined, yet outwardly calm demeanor. The banality of evil has rarely been depicted with such domesticality. The children play outside as most kids would do, only with a faint everpresent chimny smoke wafting into the sky. There are a couple of departures from the regimented compositions when dark children's fairy tales are depicted as if a camera negative. Levi contributes additional chilling music cues.

As placidly chilling as the visuals are Sound Designer Johnnie Burn creates a malevolent maelstrom of audio effects mixing in gunshots, dog barks, mayhem and human voices. Glazer never shows the insides of the camp, yet the sound and visions more than carry his intent. Even more so, since they burrow into the audience's subconscious.

Glazer has crafted a movie with a precise, if a bit self-limiting, goal. There are some moments that don't work (particularly late in the film), but one never doubts that it is uniquely his own. For those willing to take the bleak journey, Levi's exit music will haunt one long after it fades out.

Glazers movie is loosely based on Martin Amis' novel The Zone Of Interest, extracting just one aspect out of it, the so-called normal life of the Höss family, living next to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, which was under Höss' command. Their life is being shown in an almost documentary style, in absolutely realistic reconstruction of the historical setting. Everything about their home is so bluntly normal, average and pseudo idyllic that it would be even boring, if we weren't be aware of the concentration camp hell just behind the wall around their garden.

What we don't see we're getting to hear on the background sound. While garden parties are being celebrated and children play at the pool side, we hear the barking of dogs, brutal shouting, the shooting, the permanent sound of industrial murder, as a constant reminder of the atrocities the family doesn't ever seem to notice.

The banality of evil is based on ignoring the murderous Nazi reality all around.

What we get to see sometimes are smoking chimneys and the smoke of incoming trains in the distance, transporting more victims to the gas chambers.

The erasing horror is a result of Glazers concept of refusing any empathy and subjective involvement to the viewer, with disturbing effect, because we, unlike the Nazi family, are unable to suppress the obvious.

For some this might be an unbearable patience test, for others it might raise the question of how much we're suppressing and ignoring nowadays to be able to continue our average daily life.

The medium of 'Cinema' is widely recognized as a means of visual storytelling, where a series of moving images move the narrative forward, with background sound playing a secondary role. However, there are instances where the audio takes control of the sequences and defies conventionality.

Jonathan Glazer's "The Zone of Interest" serves as a prime example of this phenomenon. The director skilfully employs a variety of sounds, such as the constant arrivals of trains, gunshots, and the burning of chimneys, creating an atmosphere that is undeniably terrifying.

Whilst there are a few noteworthy cinematographic elements, including effective use of juxtaposition, it is the background score and sound design that bear the brunt of the storytelling.

For those interested in watching this film in the comfort of their homes, I would personally recommend finding the quietest possible environment, utilizing proper sound systems or headphones (preferably noise-canceling ones), and try to watch the entire thing in one sitting, without interruptions.

Trust me, this approach will significantly enhance your perception of the film.

However, it is important to note that the film heavily relies on visual as well as auditory 'insinuations,' such as suggestive sounds and framings, to convey its message. As a result, individuals who are might be unfamiliar with historical events, particularly those lacking knowledge of "The Holocaust," may struggle to grasp these subtleties.

In essence, it is not a readily accessible feature for all viewers out there. Bear that in mind.

This movie gave me the shivers in a big way.

I don't even know how to articulate my thoughts on this film. I didn't really think it was possible to show me a story about the Holocaust that felt like something I hadn't already seen, but Jonathan Glazer manages to do just that with this film. I tried to read the Martin Amis novel this is based on and got almost all the way through it, but I bailed with about 50 or so pages to go. Just couldn't force myself through that last bit. But I read enough of it to know that the film is a very loose adaptation. It's more like Glazer took the general idea and then made his own story out of it.

I had just watched "All the Light We Cannot See" shortly before seeing this film, and I was so irritated in that series that the Nazis were all portrayed as such cartoonish villains. Every single one was a ghoulish monster who monologued while terrorizing whoever they happened to be in the room with. My problem with that is that it makes the Nazis look like aberrations rather than as normal people who were somehow brainwashed into thinking that what they were doing was on the right side of history, so it's easy to dismiss the Holocaust as something that couldn't happen again. But in "The Zone of Interest," Glazer does the exact opposite. The Nazis in this are banal, ordinary people who tend their gardens, bicker about the things spouses bicker about, spend the day bathing in the river with their kids. It just so happens that literally outside their backyard is daily mass murder which they can conveniently ignore because it's out of sight. We hear the screams, gunshots, the trains bringing in fresh batches of people to be slaughtered, but we don't ever see it. The film creates a portrait of the most banal kind of evil, and it's hard for me to get my head around it.

Christian Friedel and Sandra Huller give sensational performances as the commandant of Auschwitz and his pampered, spoiled wife. The film demands full attention from its audience, as frequently the most important thing happening on screen is happening in the background, or up in the far corner of the frame. We'll see a column of crematorium smoke hovering in the distance, or see some hazy ash floating by as the Nazis wander around their flower garden that they're so proud of.

In the film's final moments, we get a glimpse of what might be a conscience in the commandant, a hint that he might not be as utterly indifferent to what he's doing as he appears throughout the rest of the film. It's a haunting scene to cap off a haunting movie.

And can I just say that reading about the making of this film makes it all the more impressive. Everything happening on the other side of the concentration camp wall is visual effects projected onto green screens. Now those are the kinds of special effects that really impress me.

Grade: A.