The Holocaust is a difficult thing to deal with in any medium, film included. The Zone of Interest is something rather rare, a movie about the Holocaust from the Nazi perspective. That's not to say it takes their side, it very much does the opposite. This is a movie about one man who was instrumental in the daily functioning of the death machine; Rudolph Hoss, commandant of Auschwitz, and his family as they work to create a home for themselves adjacent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. In simplest terms, this is the day to day lives of the people responsible for the atrocities.
Minimalism is key here - there is very little dialogue, very little music, and the interior of the camp does not appear at all in the main story. Irrespective of what it provokes in audiences, there is very little emotion portrayed. There isn't even that much of a story, even in its fairly short runtime. It also has a certain claustrophobic rigidity. You can count on one hand the number of times the camera moves. While this is a movie with a strong message, it is not explicitly delivered or spelled out at all. Deciphering this film is closer to analyzing a painting than a more standard movie. It can be quite daunting.
Ultimately, The Zone of Interest is about two things - normalization and detachment. Popular culture, back then and now, oftentimes depicts Nazis as these sort of cartoonish, comic book-esque villains. This is a film that reminds us that they were no less human than you or I. They had the same worries that many of us have - family drama, job promotion, etc. That's not to say it's trying to make excuses or anything - they know exactly what's going on. The disturbing elements of the movie are no so much as the gunshots and crematoriums in the background, but the normalcy with which it is treated.
There are also several surreal sequences in this movie, and their meaning is particularly difficult to discern. For instance, the scene where the entire screen turns red. The movie opens with a solid minute of a blank, black screen. Some scenes are filmed in negative. These are kind of a deterrent, in a way not. They do break up the monotony, but the monotony is the point of the movie. The ending of the movie is... disturbing, to say the least. It feels like a horror movie scene with an inevitable jumpscare that doesn't come.
The Zone of Interest is a unique film, that's for certain. Your mileage may vary. If you know what you're getting in to, then you may find some appreciation for this unusual vision.
Minimalism is key here - there is very little dialogue, very little music, and the interior of the camp does not appear at all in the main story. Irrespective of what it provokes in audiences, there is very little emotion portrayed. There isn't even that much of a story, even in its fairly short runtime. It also has a certain claustrophobic rigidity. You can count on one hand the number of times the camera moves. While this is a movie with a strong message, it is not explicitly delivered or spelled out at all. Deciphering this film is closer to analyzing a painting than a more standard movie. It can be quite daunting.
Ultimately, The Zone of Interest is about two things - normalization and detachment. Popular culture, back then and now, oftentimes depicts Nazis as these sort of cartoonish, comic book-esque villains. This is a film that reminds us that they were no less human than you or I. They had the same worries that many of us have - family drama, job promotion, etc. That's not to say it's trying to make excuses or anything - they know exactly what's going on. The disturbing elements of the movie are no so much as the gunshots and crematoriums in the background, but the normalcy with which it is treated.
There are also several surreal sequences in this movie, and their meaning is particularly difficult to discern. For instance, the scene where the entire screen turns red. The movie opens with a solid minute of a blank, black screen. Some scenes are filmed in negative. These are kind of a deterrent, in a way not. They do break up the monotony, but the monotony is the point of the movie. The ending of the movie is... disturbing, to say the least. It feels like a horror movie scene with an inevitable jumpscare that doesn't come.
The Zone of Interest is a unique film, that's for certain. Your mileage may vary. If you know what you're getting in to, then you may find some appreciation for this unusual vision.