The Zone of Interest Peeks @TIFF2023

Cinephiles will look at Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest as one of those films that take advantage of “Holocaust marketing”. This ain’t no cash grab of a film as it took the Grand Prix prize this year at Cannes. The iconic film festival has been known in the past for awarding certain types of films. The Zone of Interest based on the novel by Marin Amis, will prove that this isn’t your classic Holocaust film or a film that ticks the boxes for Cannes. Rather it is a sliver of the many stories from the Holocaust that we have yet to explore. This cinematic experience will leave you uneasy and is not for every type of audience.

Pride and Prejudice

The film focuses on Commander Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) who is raising his family with his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) in the centre of Poland. They live a peaceful and pristine life with a beautiful vast garden and a greenhouse enough to house another family or two. They are minutes away from Austwichz which is the infamous area where the concentration camp was located in occupied Poland.

We are introduced to Rudolf Höss when he speaks to a couple of his engineering colleagues. They show him their future crematorium that uses heat but cooling devices to be more efficient and cost-effective. We see that Höss commits to his job on a high level. He has been given a position of supreme authority where he makes stressful decisions. He must keep his family intact within the land that was given to him. Even the lilacs growing in the garden are of importance to a commander in charge.

His family is a different ball game that he needs to manage within the confines of his living quarters. His wife Hedwig whom she calls herself the “Queen of Austwich” is the one doing the child-rearing. She is flashy at times like when she wears the fur coat of a Jewish internee. Or when she shows her mother how vast her backyard/garden and greenhouse are. She loves the lavish life that is provided for her even though their living circumstances are the banality of evil.

On the other side of the wall of their quarters is the concentration camp and chambers used on the Jews. Director Jonathan Glazer does not show you much of this side let alone the disturbing atrocities. He leaves the audience’s imagination to run wild against a backdrop of smoke along with the screams and gunshots at a low but eerie volume. This juxtaposition between Höss’ family who is profiting from the mass murders on the other side of the wall is too close for comfort. Showing the two sides of humanity is what makes Glazer’s cinematic exploration in The Zone of Interest quite harrowing.

Class Struggle

It’s good versus evil, the haves versus the have-nots, the bourgeoise versus the proletariat or simply the rich versus the poor. Glazer does not bother to show the occurrences of the other side because it tarnishes the image of Rudolf’s family. The missing physical aspect of what transpires on the other side of the wall shows the containment of this blissful life that Höss’ family leads. The beauty of their living is at the expense of someone’s life just like the two societies explored in H.G. Well’s Time Machine. The Zone of Interest is a time machine that goes back to a place where most of today’s media and yesterday’s literature do not focus.

Victim Mentality

Today we focus on the victim mentality and never on the winners and how they got there. Rather we obsess over victims whom we try our best to figure out solutions for. The Zone of Interest hauntingly shows who are the clear winners. Even though this family seems to lead an everyday life, the way they got to where they are is not right. Rather director Jonathan Glazer shows the true banal side of humanity and what we have always done throughout history. Which is to achieve by all means necessary even if it means harm or death to another.

The Zone of Interest does take a page out of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket by using natural lighting. It shows how clean and pristine the lives of Rudolf’s family are. It’s similar to when the recruits in Full Metal Jacket keep their quarters immaculate. These shots are tidy, narrow, clean and reflective of the dark side of this family who are hustling at killing others.

These sequences are just too clean to be true to how Rudolf’s family lives life. This includes his own children who mock the lives of the unfortunate who live on the other side of the wall. The Zone of Interest is a true depiction of class warfare at its finest. And Jonathan Glazer paints this picture with a fine brush. That sometimes the grass will always be greener on your side. Ain’t that the truth?