In the idyllic garden of Auschwitz, a family tends roses while screams echo faintly beyond the wall.

The Zone of Interest masterfully exposes the eerie normalcy of life for the family of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, transforming historical horror into a mirror for human detachment. Through subtle domestic scenes, the film confronts viewers with the mundane machinery of evil, prompting reflection on complicity and ignorance.

  • The stark juxtaposition of bourgeois comfort against the industrialised slaughter of Auschwitz, captured through innovative sound design rather than visuals.
  • The nuanced portrayal of Hedwig Höss, whose casual cruelty reveals the psychological armour of those who enabled genocide.
  • Jonathan Glazer’s bold stylistic choices, drawing from surveillance aesthetics to underscore voyeuristic indifference.

The Wall That Divided Worlds

The film unfolds in the sun-dappled garden of the Höss villa, perched directly adjacent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi extermination camp. Rudolf Höss, portrayed with chilling restraint by Christian Friedel, oversees the camp’s expansion while hosting garden parties and swimming lessons for his children. His wife Hedwig, brought to life by Sandra Hüller, embodies the hausfrau ideal, proudly showing off furs pilfered from victims and scolding servants with petty authority. Their five children play innocently, oblivious or inured to the plumes of smoke rising from the crematoria. This setup immediately immerses the audience in a warped idyll, where children’s laughter mingles with distant gunfire and the low rumble of machinery.

Director Jonathan Glazer adapts Martin Amis’s novel loosely, shifting focus from internal monologues to observational detachment. The narrative spans a year in 1943, capturing Höss’s promotion discussions amid logistical debates on crematoria efficiency. Family outings to the river reveal ash floating on the water, yet picnics proceed uninterrupted. Meals feature delicacies sourced from the camp, with Hedwig sniffing suspiciously at a pudding laced with traces of death. These vignettes accumulate, building a portrait of selective blindness, where the family’s routines persist despite irrefutable evidence of atrocity mere metres away.

The villa itself becomes a character, its high walls topped with barbed wire mirroring the camp’s perimeter. Höss’s mother-in-law visits, sensing unease and departing abruptly after overhearing nighttime wails. Servants, Polish women forced from their homes, navigate this domestic hell with quiet resistance, one hiding contraband photos that hint at external awareness. Through these details, the film illustrates how proximity to evil fosters normalisation, a theme rooted in historical accounts of the real Höss household.

Sounds of the Unseen Abyss

Glazer’s masterstroke lies in his sound design, crafted by Johnnie Burn, which substitutes graphic imagery with an auditory hellscape. Viewers hear shouts, dogs barking, trains arriving, and the thud of bodies, all while the camera lingers on empty rooms or sunburned backs. This approach forces imagination to fill the void, amplifying complicity; audiences become voyeurs, piecing together horrors from peripheral clues. The score, by Mica Levi, pulses with dissonant strings, evoking the camp’s relentless rhythm.

One sequence stands out: a garden party where laughter drowns out approaching screams, only for the sound to pierce through during a momentary hush. Höss pauses mid-conversation, then resumes, his face impassive. This sonic layering critiques the ‘banality of evil’ coined by Hannah Arendt, showing how bureaucracy and domesticity muffled moral reckoning. Historical records confirm similar dynamics; camp staff hosted social events, with music from the camp orchestra providing cover for gassings.

The film’s final reel shifts to present-day Auschwitz, with a cleaning crew mopping the gas chamber under stark fluorescents, accompanied by laboured breathing. This coda connects past detachment to contemporary amnesia, urging vigilance against creeping normalisation. Critics praised this restraint, noting how silence in visuals heightens the terror of what remains unsaid.

Hedwig’s Empire of Lilies

Hedwig Höss emerges as the film’s emotional core, her ambition for a ‘paradise garden’ built by slave labour symbolising appropriated prosperity. Hüller’s performance captures her vanity and volatility; she inhales the scent of roses cultivated on Jewish prisoners’ backs, declaring the house her ‘little paradise’. When Rudolf faces transfer, she explodes in fury, threatening to stay regardless. This scene reveals her stake in the system, not mere wifely duty.

Real-life Hedwig managed the household with iron control, evicting locals and exploiting camp resources. Post-war, she rebuilt in East Germany, dying unrepentant in 1989. The film amplifies her micro-aggressions: discarding a prisoner’s lipstick-tainted collar, or casually mentioning a ‘hanging’ overheard. These moments humanise without excusing, portraying her as a product of ideology fused with personal entitlement.

Hüller’s subtlety shines in unspoken tensions; a glance at smoke signals quiet calculation. Her wardrobe, pristine and period-accurate, contrasts the grime beyond the wall, underscoring class insulation. This character study extends to the children, whose games mimic violence innocently, foreshadowing generational transmission.

Rudolf’s Ledgers of Death

Friedel’s Höss is a devoted family man and efficient manager, poring over blueprints for new gas chambers while flirting with his wife. His promotion speech to SS officers rationalises expansion as engineering triumph, detached from human cost. Nightmares jolt him awake, but duty prevails; he visits the camp unseen, returning composed. This duality echoes survivor testimonies of his politeness amid orders for mass murder.

The film avoids biopic tropes, using long takes to convey monotony. Höss cycles to work, tours facilities off-screen, returns to host dinners. Interactions with subordinates reveal hierarchy’s dehumanising logic; a Jewish girl hides apples for prisoners, symbolising futile resistance glimpsed peripherally.

Historical context enriches this: Höss implemented Zyklon B, overseeing 1.1 million deaths. His 1946 memoir, written before execution, expressed regret yet minimised responsibility. Glazer consulted such documents, blending fact with fiction to probe managerial evil.

Filmmaking in the Face of History

Production recreated the villa on location near Auschwitz, using hidden cameras for a documentary feel. Glazer spent a year filming covertly, capturing unscripted authenticity. Challenges included ethical filming near the memorial site, approved after consultations. The crew numbered 120 Poles, honouring local history.

Glazer’s evolution from stylish thrillers to this austere drama reflects maturation. Influences include Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah, prioritising testimony over reenactment. Awards followed: Oscars for Best International Feature and Sound, affirming impact.

Legacy debates rage; some decry detachment as insufficient condemnation, others laud provocation. Box office success and festival acclaim position it alongside classics like Schindler’s List, though stylistically divergent.

Director in the Spotlight: Jonathan Glazer

Jonathan Glazer, born 4 March 1965 in London, initially pursued architecture at Newcastle University before pivoting to film through music videos for artists like Radiohead (‘Karma Police’, 1997) and Massive Attack. His feature debut, Sexy Beast (2000), launched Ben Kingsley’s career with a searing gangster tale, earning BAFTA nominations and cult status for its sun-baked tension. Glazer co-wrote and directed, blending noir with surrealism.

Next, Birth (2004) starred Nicole Kidman as a widow confronted by a boy claiming to be her reincarnated husband. Its controversial slow-burn intimacy divided critics but showcased Glazer’s command of mood and ambiguity. Under the Skin (2013), with Scarlett Johansson as an alien seductress, marked his sci-fi turn, using hidden cameras in Glasgow for raw encounters. Praised for visuals and Mica Levi’s score, it won BAFTA Outstanding British Film.

After a decade’s hiatus, Glazer unveiled The Zone of Interest (2023), adapting Amis while discarding dialogue-heavy source. Influences span Hungarian philosopher László Nemes’s Son of Saul and Polish cinema. Commercials for Levi’s and Guinness honed his precision. Glazer’s oeuvre explores alienation, from criminal underworlds to otherworldly predators, culminating in Holocaust banality. Future projects remain speculative, but his restraint promises continued innovation. Key works: Sexy Beast (2000, crime thriller), Birth (2004, psychological drama), Under the Skin (2013, sci-fi horror), The Zone of Interest (2023, historical drama).

Actor in the Spotlight: Sandra Hüller

Sandra Hüller, born 30 April 1978 in Söderhamn, Sweden, but raised in Germany, trained at Ernst Busch Academy in Berlin. Breakthrough came with Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann (2016), earning her European Film Award for Best Actress as a straitlaced executive pranked by her father. Its improvisational comedy resonated globally, launching international acclaim.

In Requiem (2006), she portrayed epileptic Anna, based on Anneliese Michel, winning Bavarian Film Award. 4 Days in France (2016) showed comedic range. In the Fade (2017) by Fatih Akin featured her as a vengeance-seeking widow, netting Lola and Globe de Cristal nods. The Zone of Interest (2023) showcased icy poise as Hedwig Höss, followed by Anatomy of a Fall (2023), earning Oscar nomination for Best Actress as a suspect wife.

Stage roots include Schaubühne Berlin; films like Aether (2018) and I Am Your Child (2021) affirm versatility. 2024 Venice win for The Apprentice. Hüller’s career trajectory from indie darling to awards magnet highlights chameleon skills. Notable roles: Requiem (2006, drama), Toni Erdmann (2016, comedy), In the Fade (2017, thriller), Anatomy of a Fall (2023, courtroom), The Zone of Interest (2023, historical).

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Bibliography

Amis, M. (2014) The Zone of Interest. London: Jonathan Cape.

Burn, J. (2023) Sound Design Notes for The Zone of Interest. A24 Production Archives. Available at: https://www.a24films.com/insights/2023/12/zone-interest-sound (Accessed 10 October 2024).

Glazer, J. (2023) ‘Jonathan Glazer on making The Zone of Interest’, interviewed by Mottram, J. for The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/jonathan-glazer-zone-interest-interview-b2435678.html (Accessed 10 October 2024).

Höss, R. (1959) Commandant of Auschwitz: The Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Levi, M. (2023) Composer Interview: The Score of The Zone of Interest. The Hollywood Reporter. Available at: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/mica-levi-zone-interest-score-interview-1235678901/ (Accessed 10 October 2024).

Longerich, P. (2012) Heinrich Himmler: Biographer of an Evil Man. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mottram, J. (2024) The Making of The Zone of Interest. London: Faber & Faber.

Weinraub, J. (2024) ‘Sandra Hüller: From Hedwig Höss to Global Star’. Variety. Available at: https://variety.com/2024/film/global/sandra-huller-zone-interest-anatomy-fall-1235890123/ (Accessed 10 October 2024).

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