Jonathan Glazer’s 'Zone of Interest' Artistically Subverts the Brutality of the Holocaust

by Zach Miller

    Jonathan Glazer goes for the bold artistic approach of taking on one of the most brutal periods of human history. Zone of Interest is based on the book by Martin Amis also title The Zone of Interest.

    The film is primarily told from the perspective of Rudolf Höss, head of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, while he accompanied by his family in their boarding house right next to the walls of the camp.

    Through careful and meticulous research by sound designer Johnnie Burn, Glazer at the NYFF in a Q&A went on to say they decided to make two films in one: “The one we see and the one we hear.” The horror evolves beyond the walls in audio of mass killings, burning furnaces, and train whistles, we are left with the Nazi family enjoying their everyday life. Glazer’s observational perspective on the German family excludes the brutal war crimes of inside the camp and leaves us on the outside for the duration of the piece.

    Now, this was surely a bold choice, but to me, it felt exactly as unfulfilled as the camera. We were not included on the atrocities by the Germans which is the primary focus to see a Holocaust history film come to life. Instead, we are left with the German family complaining about their flowers being misplaced in the garden or the toys the children play with in their room, and undoubtedly so. Ut was Glazer’s point to showcase the level the Germans cared for trivial things opposed to life and death 100ft from their home for prisoner members. However, this absence of the Holocaust from a Holocaust movie for the entirety of the film prevented the effectiveness of the technique from fully delivering. Had the German perspective been the first half of the film and the second half dedicated itself to slowly pulling back the veil on the horror committed, it would have a much larger impact on the viewer.

    As for the performances, Christian Friedel as the Commandant Höss was phenomenal in his stoic masochism while he composes himself as the dutiful leader to his country and family. As Sandra Hüller also does as mother to her children, she takes on blissful ignorance to the surroundings assuming her way of life is justified for the German people. Although the story loses sight of the marriage between the Friedel and Hüller as the story wanders elsewhere to Hoss’ health problems, subsequently irrelevant by the end of the film now knowing he survived post-war, and struggles to find it’s identity with the roles of the children. There are moments the children are seen gazing out the window, or overhearing guards confronting prisoners, however they fall in line. The filmmakers never provide us with scenes where the parents forcefully subject their children to the prejudices of the Nazis justifying their “work.”

    Finally, the film takes a rather pretentious turn with its inclusion of drawn-out orchestral scores under a black screen and the intense color changes of the screen from red after closely analyzing the red beauty of a flower. The message is clearly conveyed, the family is immersed in their own ignorance to see the horror of ‘red’ going on around them. However excluding us from the violence of a Holocaust genre film seems overdone as bait for audiences. Using our expectations and knowledge of this violent period as fuel for imagination comes across disrespectful instead of highlighting the evil nature further on Höss and his plans at Auschwitz. For a film to be made more artistically than a biography piece with such heavy subject matter felt like a major disservice to the story of Auschwitz. The story could still be told from the perspective of Höss while developing his evil nature by showing us his monstrosity.

    Prior to the screening I wasn’t aware of the book the film is based on, but that being said, the real American psychologists that performed post-war jail cell analysis of Höss would’ve proved to be more thought provoking instead of familial disputes and overhearing horror in sound design. Although the sound design played, what I thought, the best role of the film, it fails to keep the viewer engaged or informed. The sound design alone can not keep the rest of the film from falling flat.