The Zone of Interest
In selected cinemas
It is dishearteningly fitting that the UK release of Jonathan Glazer’s acclaimed fourth feature film should coincide with the escalation of conflicts occurring across the Middle East. By way of its own consciously muted style, The Zone of Interest reinforces the true horror of wartime atrocities not through reenactment, but by forensically documenting the mundanity of the lifestyles and preoccupations of those who inflict such crimes.
Loosely adapted from Martin Amis’ novel of the same name, the film is centred on the Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, who reside with their children in spitting distance of Auschwitz, which Höss presides over. Glazer and cinematographer Łukasz Żal’s novel approach to recreating the domesticity of the Höss’ lives saw them embed up to 10 cameras in and around the household, which provides The Zone of Interest with a discomforting lived-in characteristic that is difficult to shake off.
Christian Friedel is fittingly unemotional as Höss, whose warped sense of duty renders him anaesthetised to the senseless suffering he administers, but it is arguably Hüller’s dependably excellent portrayal of his spouse that underlines the true horrors of this tale. In almost direct contrast to her Academy Award-nominated turn in Anatomy of a Fall, here we see Hüller depict an entirely unsympathetic character who revels in being known as the ‘Queen of Auschwitz’ and places more stock in the wellness of her garden than human life.
As frighteningly dispassionate is the work of sound designer Johnnie Burn, who fatefully reanimates the soundscape of Auschwitz with enough authenticity to leave you feeling as though you are within the boundaries of the camp. Mica Levi, who contributed so considerably to Glazer’s exquisite Under the Skin, also provides an encircling score that adds to the appropriate sense of unease that pervades the film.
While Glazer’s distinctly stylised approach may not resonate with every viewer, The Zone of Interest is an unarguably original approach to examining the legacy of Auschwitz and the lessons it continues to provide us with, perhaps now more than ever.
