A One Mann’s Movies Film Review of “The Zone of Interest” (2024).
A 12-certificate film about the Holocaust that shows none of the horror? That was highly intriguing to me going into this new one from Jonathan Glazer. Does the film have a powerful message?: definitely yes. Is it an interesting film to watch?: Hmm, less so. As such, I find myself really struggling to rate this one.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Rudolf Höss is the commandant of the Aushwitz concentration camp. He, his wife Hedwig and their children live in luxury in a house just the other side of the camps walls. None of the horror is visible. But the sounds are.
Certification:
UK: 12; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC web site: “Holocaust theme, disturbing scenes, racism, moderate sex references”).
Talent:
Starring: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller.
Directed by: Jonathan Glazer.
Written by: Jonathan Glazer. (From the novel by Martin Amis).
Twitter Handle: #TheZoneOfInterest.
Running Time: 1h 45m.
“The Zone of Interest” Film Review:
Positives:
- The film cleverly shows none of the horror and leaves your mind to fill in the gaps using auditory and visual clues: the shouts and screams from inside the camp; the billowing smoke and belching flames coming from the incinerators; the constant steam trains arriving at the camp. In fact we only ever see the prisoners once in the whole film: subliminally through the long grasses as a working group head out.
- Glazer’s script is a mood piece more than a story. We just see the Hoss family going about their daily lives: partying, picnicking in their garden….. that’s the garden that the gardener has been scattering ashes onto to help the flowers and veg grow. It’s the normality of it all that makes for the horror.
- The cinematography and sound design are all top notch.
Negatives:
- Unfortunately, for me, all of this mood-building – including starting the film with about 5 minutes of Mica Levi’s atonal music over a black screen – doesn’t make up for a lack of story. I found it an impressive watch, but I also found it a dull watch. This is not a film that I want to see again. And not because it was about the Holocaust and horrific, but because I found it boring.
- Glazer tantalizingly slips in an element of a story that might have been good to follow: that of a young girl called Alexandria (true story) who, at risk of death, smuggled apples and other foodstuffs into areas where the starving prisoners could find them. But Jonathan Glazer (remember “Under the Skin“) is not a director to present things in a straightforward way. These scenes are done in negative imagery (to what end? to counterpoint the “goodness” in these acts to the atrocities in the rest of the film?). But they are little more than vignettes and almost dreamlike in nature. (I thought they were the dreams of the sleepwalking child until later in the film).
Summary Thoughts on “The Zone of Interest”
My colleague Scott Forbes, from the “Flickering Dreams” podcast, used the “P-word” (“pretentious”) in his online review and raised a storm of sharp comments! But I can see where he was coming from. This Holocaust-based movie is undeniably “important”, and noone can really argue with the message. But couldn’t Glazer have done this while injecting more of an interesting story into it?
I’m actually frustated that this film took one of the “Best Film” Oscar slots, when something like “All Of Us Strangers” might have been hovering in the number 11 position. Because I’m afraid I just didn’t rate it all that highly, and feel I might have been generous with my 3.5* rating.
Trailer for “The Zone of Interest”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-vfg3KkV54 .
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