“The Zone of Interest” is one of the best movies I may never watch again. Released in 2023, “The Zone of Interest” is a film about Rudolf Höss, the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
This film demonstrates the horror of concentration camps more effectively than most World War II films, despite it never showing the inside of one. Instead, the film takes its time to flesh out its lead characters, Höss, his wife and their family. This angle allows John Glazer, the film’s writer and director, to dig into the culture of Germany in the Nazi era and the worst it had to offer.
The film has almost no score; its official soundtrack has 2 tracks labeled “Opening” and “Closing,” which respectively play over the beginning and end credits of the film. The rest of the movie is spent listening to the sounds our characters are hearing. The crackling of fire, water rushing down a stream or splashing in a pool, tea on the stove and, occasionally, screams from somewhere off-screen. It is simultaneously captivating and horrifying.
Glazer’s script makes excellent use of its historical context by never outright explaining what is happening but gives just enough to guide the viewer into using their knowledge on the Holocaust to piece it together. It does not have to show Auschwitz because the audience already knows what Auschwitz is. The film references Jewish people leaving things behind, but never where they went to, because we know where they went to. By hiding the Holocaust behind words and reference, Glazer taps into one of the fundamentals of the horror genre; showing your monster is less scary than anything the viewer can picture in their head.
Finally, with no spoilers, the ending to this film has been stuck in my head since I watched it. I cannot explain why at all without ruining your potential experience, but Glazer managed to make the ending both miserable and uplifting simultaneously.
It has been a long time since I have thought about a movie for this long.
Rating: 10/10
