{"id":19903,"date":"2024-02-02T17:38:17","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T22:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=19903"},"modified":"2024-03-24T12:10:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-24T16:10:48","slug":"the-zone-of-interest-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=19903","title":{"rendered":"The Zone of Interest-2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Zone of Interest-2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Jonathan Glazer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Christian Friedel, Sandra H\u00fcller<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #1,419<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed February 2, 2024<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Zone of Interest (2023) offers a unique experience for its audience. It’s one of a distant observer to unthinkable horrors and events that took place during the 1940s occupied Poland.<\/p>\n

A lovely estate rife with flourishing flowers and plush gardens surrounds the haunting setting of the Auschwitz concentration camp.<\/p>\n

Exterminations and unspeakable acts of human suffering occur daily whilst a German family enjoys their dream home hardly unnerved by what’s going on steps away.<\/p>\n

The father is the mastermind behind the suffering.<\/p>\n

The macabre film is extraordinary, and powerful, and will haunt you long after it ends.<\/p>\n

The subject matter of the Holocaust in cinema is usually told with a visual examination of the victims.\u00a0In The Zone of Interest, though, what you don’t see is worse than what you do.<\/p>\n

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf H\u00f6ss (Christian Friedel), and his wife Hedwig (Sandra H\u00fcller) live a seemingly idyllic life with their five children. They fish, swim, and frolic among the confines of their\u00a0house and garden next to the camp.<\/p>\n

H\u00f6ss is a high-ranking and respected member of the Third Reich. Servants handle chores around the house, while the prisoners’ belongings are given to the family.<\/p>\n

As a viewer, I first thought to myself what a happy family they seem to be. I was quickly sickened when I realized what was going on over the top of their high walls and their role in it.<\/p>\n

Director, Jonathan Glazer, brought us disturbing films such as Birth (2004) and Under the Skin (2015) and revolts even more with The Zone of Interest. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a film quite like it.<\/p>\n

Usually, what happens in a film happens<\/strong><\/em> on screen. Seeing the Jews gassed or shot or tortured is horrific enough. Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993) was a masterpiece by visually featuring the nature of the Holocaust in an inventive black-and-white way.<\/p>\n

We see<\/strong><\/em> the victims.<\/p>\n

In The Zone of Interest, it’s the sound that is effective. Beyond the garden wall, gunshots, shouting, and sounds of trains and furnaces are constantly heard.<\/p>\n

The nights are even worse.<\/p>\n

A quick glimpse of flames and smoke roaring to the sky are the visuals key to the events taking place next door.<\/p>\n

We only very quickly see a parade of prisoners march through the grass……once.<\/p>\n

H\u00f6ss approves the design of a new crematorium, which soon becomes operational. With horror, it is confirmed that thousands of Jews are gassed and burned.<\/p>\n

Glazer keeps the viewer at a distance with more than just experiencing the unseen. The cameras are set far back from events so the audience observes the family instead of being alongside.<\/p>\n

There are no closeups.<\/p>\n

The lighting is superior. Muted tones portray the starkness of the period. Effective is how everything appears grey except the flowers in the garden.<\/p>\n

Some peculiarities exist that are hard to figure out. In two sequences, a Polish girl who lives nearby sneaks out every night, hiding food at the prisoners’ work sites for them to find and eat.<\/p>\n

The film is a clay animation style similar to what Glazer used in parts of Under the Skin. It’s weird, stylistic, and fascinating.<\/p>\n

Late in the film, H\u00f6ss descends a staircase and retches. He does so again. I’m not sure why he does. Is he subconsciously sickened by the death he causes? He has been tasked with a new initiative to transport hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz to be killed.<\/p>\n

The mission has been named after him.<\/p>\n

Is it too much for him to deal with?<\/p>\n

The film ends with a modern scene of a group of janitors cleaning the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum before it opens.<\/p>\n

I was dying to know what happened to H\u00f6ss and Hedwig.<\/p>\n

It’s a searing film, unforgettable and uncomfortable. It plods and sickens but is pure art. It’s troublesome and a unique entry for Holocaust films. Glazer finds a new way to examine material told in cinema for decades.<\/p>\n

The Zone of Interest (2023) is a painful masterpiece and a thinking man’s film.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations: 2 wins-<\/strong>Best Picture, Best Director-Jonathan Glazer, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best International Feature Film (won)<\/strong>, Best Sound (won)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Independent Spirit Award Nominations:<\/strong> Best International Film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Zone of Interest-2023 Director Jonathan Glazer Starring Christian Friedel, Sandra H\u00fcller Scott’s Review #1,419 Reviewed February 2, 2024 Grade: A The Zone of Interest (2023) offers a unique experience for its audience. It’s one of a distant observer to unthinkable horrors and events that took place during the 1940s occupied Poland. A lovely estate … Continue reading The Zone of Interest-2023<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[428,175,350,813,35,265,204],"tags":[3410,2356,3411],"class_list":["post-19903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-movie-reviews","category-artfilms","category-best-foreign-language-picture-winners","category-german","category-foreignfilms","category-foreign-thrillers","category-thrillers","tag-christian-friedel","tag-jonathan-glazer","tag-sandra-huller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19903"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20055,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19903\/revisions\/20055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}