The Zone of Interest (Glazer, 2023)
Once again, I have missed out on the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Oh well, maybe I should go for the Pulitzer Prize for Self-Criticism instead? I’d romp home.
Of all the films I have seen in cinemas since restarting Funerals & Snakes (over 200 newsletters ago), Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest is the one that has haunted me the most.
Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel are the Hösses, living a fairly blissful upper middle class existence while World War II rages in the distance. He is a successful bureaucrat. She runs the household.
But their prosperity depends on what happens on the other side of the wall, the Auschwitz concentration camp that he commands.
First time around, I wondered who the film was for. Two months later, I think I get it.
If you are familiar with the history, every scene will resonate with some unspeakable detail. For example, several times we see and hear the industrialists who are being made fabulously wealthy thanks to the forced labour in the camps or the investment by the state in their technology.
But what if you haven’t had access to the truth about that period before, or you have been surrounded by those who would minimise it or deny it? Does the film encourage you to ask questions or do you sit there, bored at all this domesticity, wondering what all the fuss is about?
It’s in the final stages of the film that the big ideas – rather than the conceptuality of it – start to land. Where we are asked to think a little bit more about these people and who they are – who they represent, what they mean – and Glazer’s filmmaking bravura becomes irresistible.
This is a film that gets better the more you talk about it, which means it gets better the more people who see it. It is released on physical media and rental in New Zealand today and I’d love to hear what you make of it.
Where to watch The Zone of Interest
Aotearoa and Australia: On Blu-ray and DVD, digital rental from AroVision, Apple, etc.
Canada, Ireland and UK: Streaming on Prime Video
USA: Streaming on Max
Editor’s note: Taking requests
I’m looking to set aside one newsletter a week for a subscriber suggestion/recommendation. If you have a film or show that you would like to share with the group and you think I might like to review it, drop me a line or leave a comment.
