150 Word Review: 'The Zone of Interest' (2023)
Heil on Earth
Director Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest is a movie about the Holocaust that never shows the mass murder of Jews at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Instead, it dwells on the frivolous domestic dramas of Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss's family, who live next door to hell.
Evil isn't just banal in The Zone of Interest; it's comfortable and oblivious to the industrial-sized suffering of others. The wrong side of history has a pool, a garden, and a wall topped with razor wire. Sandra Hüller is a fussy monster as Hedwig Höss, a wife and mother who loves her little Aryan paradise despite the stench of burning bodies and the distant sounds of gunshots.
This is a disciplined, detail-rich look at fascist drones. Glazer wants the audience to consider the prices people will pay for prosperity and luxury. In the case of the Hösses? Their souls and the lives of countless humans.
The Director Of This Film Directed What?
Jonathan Glazer’s diverse film resume includes the 2001 crime drama Sexy Beast and the unnerving 2013 sci-fi movie Under The Skin starring Scarlett Johannsen. He was also an accomplished music video director responsible for one of the greatest short films of all time—Jamiroquai’s ‘Virtual Insanity.’
This review reminds me of the film ‘Boy in the Striped Pajamas’ because it’s also centered on the man who is in charge of the nearby camp and mostly his son who befriends a young Jewish boy who thinks he’s just living on a farm with a fence separating them.
I don’t like Holocaust movies or WWll movies anymore because they are just too painful. My uncle was a POW and the only way he survived was digging for worms and insects. It’s the only thing he ever mentioned.
If you like this movie, you also may like ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.”
Great review, as usual.
Not going to watch this one.
"The wrong side of history has a pool, a garden, and a wall topped with razor wire." How ironic that this is life just outside Gaza and parts of the West Bank 80 years later.