Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
The Zone of Interest
Directed by Jonathan Glazer,
In cinemas from February 22
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
“The Zone of Interest” is based on the Martin Amis novel of the same name. Written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, the movie focusses on the daily life of Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) the S.S. commandant of Auschwitz, his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) and their children.
It’s a story about The Holocaust but one which is just out of sight and mind. Kept at a distance by closed walls and closed minds.
Höss, who admitted at his trial of being responsible for the death of at least a million and a half people at Auschwitz was not named in the Amis book which used three fictional characters to create a wide-ranging narrative about the camp and The Final Solution.
If you didn’t know about Höss or The Holocaust, Glazer’s film might appear to be enigmatic or mystifying. We do not really see the camp only the surrounding wall which is capped with barbed wire, the roofs of the barracks, a watch tower, the occasional smokestack and smoke. We see no inmates, guards or dogs.
We do hear the distant rumblings of the camp, the low sounds of voices, occasional shouts, and barks as well as random shots.
This distancing from the horrors on the other side of the wall is emphasised with much of the filming in long shot and the film features the Höss’ lush garden where Hedwig spends her time and the backyard swimming pool with the frolicking children.
The film is full of contrasts between the two environments – the camp and the house. But that contrast is generated by the viewers knowledge. So, we know the food that the family eat is sumptuous compared with what those on the other side of the wall eat. That the clothes they wear are better, that the environment is calm and relaxing. That their life is simple and ordered.
In one long sequence the camera follows Höss as he tours the house at night, turning off the light, closing doors checking on the sleeping children, bringing the day to a peaceful close.
One of the few sequences set inside the camp is of Höss supervising the unloading of people from a train. All we are shown is a low shot of Höss framed against the smoke-filled sky with the sounds of barked commands, whips cracking, crying and confusion.
One of the other dramatic intrusions of the camp into the idyllic life of the family is seen in a sequence where Höss and his children are swimming in river. The tranquillity is abruptly cut short when Hoss discovers a bone fragment floating in the water and sees a scum floating towards them – the result of ash from the crematorium scattered deposited upriver. The children are them vigorously scrubbed free of the physical and racial taint.
In another scene Höss’ wife swans around her bedroom in an expensive fur coat which she insists needs to be cleaned, without stating why.
When the business of extermination is talked about it is in euphemisms or oblique language. In a meeting Höss has with engineers to discuss the new crematorium no mention is made of the number bodies which could be incinerated rather they refer to the possible “load” the ovens are capable of dealing with.
While there is no reaction by the family to the horrors over the wall, one of the young girls in the family appears to do into catatonic state as though blotting out her reactions. This psychological denial is then represented by some thermal imaging black and white sequences of a young girl placing food around the camp, seemingly at night, in a dream.
The reality of The Holocaust and of Auschwitz is made clear in the final moments of the film where Höss wanders through the silent corridors, his gaze seeming to be drawn to other activities. Then the film cuts to the present-day museum at Auschwitz and we see the piles of suitcase, the stacks of crutches and mounds of shoes, all that remains of extinguished lives.
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