Written by: Siddhartha Krishnan | 4 Min Read
(Trailer – The Zone of Interest)
I had been eagerly awaiting the release of The Zone of Interest on OTT, since it had a limited theatrical release in India. Now, it’s available on Amazon Prime Video. The film won the Best International Feature and Best Sound Design at the 2023 Oscars. It also won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Notably, the Indian film All We Imagine as Light, directed by Payal Kapadia, currently holds the same honor.
Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest is a German historical drama that delves into the lives of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife, Hedwig. They reside in an opulent house right next to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Shot in a near-documentary style, the film’s camera serves as a silent observer.
The Höss family goes about their daily routines, basking in the comforts of their luxurious existence. The children swim and fish, while Hedwig spends her days gardening and maintaining their household with the help of several servants. Yet, next door, there is a relentless cacophony of shouting, gunshots, roaring furnaces, and arriving trains. Rudolf’s grim task is to oversee the extermination of thousands of Jews, a horrifying job he executes with chilling precision.
The film is a profound meditation on human depravity. It starkly portrays how easily we can desensitize ourselves, transforming into monstrous beings complicit in one of history’s greatest atrocities. The film forces us to confront the banality of evil and the chilling ease with which ordinary lives can coexist with unimaginable horror.
The Zone of Interest has been rightly hailed as a masterpiece for its minimalistic yet novel approach. It presents scenes that are strikingly unique in cinema. How do you depict violence without showing it? How do you convey depravity with a nonchalant, matter-of-fact demeanor? This film is a masterclass in both.
The aesthetics are strikingly contemporary, despite being a period piece. It feels like a window where the past and present gaze at each other, blurring the lines of time.
Please keep in mind that The Zone of Interest is not your typical Holocaust or World War II film. There isn’t a single scene of bloodshed, yet the film is profoundly grotesque. Its screenplay is unlike anything seen before in this genre. At just 1 hour and 45 minutes, it covers a lot of ground at its own deliberate pace, delivering its message with immense power.
The film is as hard-hitting as the classics on the subject. Steven Spielberg even called it the best Holocaust film since his own Schindler’s List (1993). Need I say more?
Verdict –
IMDb rating: 7.4/10
My rating: 4.5/5
*****
About the author –
Siddhartha Krishnan is the author of ‘Two and a Half Rainbows – A Collection of Short Stories’. An enthusiastic blogger he shares his articles, essays, travelogues, book and movie reviews on his blog (www.whatsonsidsmind.com).