A24
The Zone of Interest
Jonathan Glazer’s haunting, Oscar-winning drama centres on the life of Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller), as they live a seemingly idyllic life right next to the infamous concentration camp. The film presents a chilling juxtaposition between the horrors of the Holocaust and the comfortable, insulated existence of the Höss family. As they go about their daily lives - gardening, hosting family gatherings and tending to their children - we are acutely aware of the unimaginable atrocities occurring the other side of the wall.
The film refrains from showing any of the violence directly, focusing instead on the eerie detachment of the characters. The banality of their daily routines emphasises the psychological horror, as they remain indifferent or wilfully blind to the suffering on just the other side of their garden wall.
Themes of moral blindness, complicity and desensitisation to atrocity run deep, questioning how individuals can live ordinary lives whilst atrocities unfold in the background. The film’s slow, atmospheric pacing and deliberate framing (with cameras often placed at some distance from the actors) enhance the tension, as does the extraordinary sound track - described by Glazer "the other film" and "arguably, the film”. These innovative features, together with the restrained performances of the leads, combine to make the moral questions raised all the more unsettling.
The Zone of Interest received five Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture, eventually winning two: for Best Sound and for Best International Feature - a first for a UK non-English language film.
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