The Zone of Interest

I know this much is true: “The Zone of Interest” is not like any other film you’ve ever seen - and certainly not like any other Holocaust film you’ve ever seen. In this film, the “zone of interest” is the home and garden of Nazi commandant Rudolf Hoss: his wife, their children, servants (some Polish and some Jewish), beautiful flowers, a bounty of vegetables, a swimming pool…and just beyond the garden wall? Auschwitz - with its omnipresent gun shots and screams and smoke and ash. Tune your ears and you will hear the endless roar of the furnace; allow your eyes to drift to the upper left of the screen and you’ll see flames - all of this happening just beyond the idyllic garden wall. For me, the film worked in two ways. First, as an exercise in filmmaking technique. The director, Jonathan Glazer, has placed fixed cameras throughout the house and garden; the resulting effect is as if you were watching the comings-and-goings of a family from the perspective of multiple Ring cameras. Second, as an intellectual exercise: the mundane juxtaposed with the horrific. To be honest, I didn’t have an emotional reaction to “The Zone of Interest,” but I couldn’t stop watching it and I can’t stop thinking about it - Mrs. Hoss modeling a fur coat (previously worn by someone from the other side of the wall); the children playing with extracted teeth; Mr. Hoss rushing to get the children out of the river before they are struck by bones and covered in ash. “The Zone of Interest” is nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound, and Best International Feature.