God bless my friend Adriana. First, she is an amazing writer that has finished two AMAZING reviews so far. Secondly though, she will ALWAYS come with me to the movies, even if that is for a Zone of Interest and All of Us Strangers double feature. It was a heavy four hours for both of us, but definitely time well spent. Make sure to check out Adriana’s review of All of Us Strangers and read on to see my thoughts on The Zone of Interest!
My Thoughts
We will start off with a super basic overview of the movie. I think the description provided is really helpful so here it is: “The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife, Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.”
Ya, so the content of this one is heavy, but maybe not in the ways you’d expect. Written and directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Christian Friedel as the real life Rudolf Höss and Sandra Hüller as his wife Hedwig. You might recognize Hüller from another great 2023 movie that we also reviewed called Anatomy of a Fall.
Anyway, this movie was an interesting one. When the credits rolled, I was left to ponder what exactly I just watched. Similar to my experience with Killers of the Flower Moon, this isn’t a movie you “enjoy” watching in the traditional sense simply because of how serious the subject matter is. The filmmaking on display is definitely impressive but I had to overcome the bleak feeling I had when the movie was done to really realise just how good this was.
The most interesting thing this movie did that really added to its uniqueness was what they chose to show and what not to show. Much of the horror of this movie occurs exclusively in our heads as we’re helped along by some slight visuals and faint audio of some of the horrors taking place in Auschwitz.
This more subtle approach though is in essence what this movie is truly about which is how banal that true evil can manifest itself. On the surface, this movie plays almost like a simple family drama. It has all the hallmarks of family life from children, parties, gardening, husband/wife drama, difficulties at work, you name it. But what makes this different is that this family lives next to a concentration camp that the father is running.
To be clear, it’s not done in a bad or disrespectful way. It actually serves to make things feel even more disturbing by showing how casual evil can really be. Simple scenes of sitting in the garden are haunted by the faint sounds of screams and gunshots in the distance or by the smoke emanating from the camp. Even scenes where Rudolf Höss is talking about his “work” as casually as you might talk at your corporate gig going over the quarterly planning. But while you might be talking about the new marketing plan, he’s trying to find ways to optimize the extermination of the Jews in the camp.
The cast is brilliant here, especially Hüller. She plays a truly evil woman that doesn’t need giant evil villain monologues for you to understand just how evil she truly is. It’s because of all of these things that I believe this is an important movie that gives more to you the longer you think about it.
Verdict
Like I said earlier, this isn’t a movie you’ll enjoy watching or that you’ll really feel compelled to watch again. It’s so calculated and effective that you’ll feel unsettled throughout the runtime as the horrors of the holocaust and the banality of evil are on full display.
It’s because of this bleakness though that I feel this is such a worthwhile movie to see at least once. The craft on display here is impressive and it’s a movie that will stick with you long after you’ve finished it.
Adriana Wiszniewska