The Zone of Interest review: Jonathan Glazer delivers a remarkable movie about the Holocaust

Jonathan Glazer directs a movie roughly every 10 years, but when he does, they are usually pretty special. The Zone of Interest definitely falls into that category, being a chilling Holocaust drama that focuses on the perpetrators – rather than the victims – of those crimes against humanity, in a wholly original and deeply troubling way.

Since debuting with remarkable gangster movie Sexy Beast in 2000, writer-director Jonathan Glazer has been far from prolific. The weird and wonderful Birth followed in 2004, but it was a decade until he made his next film – 2013’s sci-fi masterpiece Under the Skin. And it’s taken another 10 years for Glazer to make his fourth feature, The Zone of Interest.

But it’s worth the wait, as the film is a towering achievement that offers a fresh perspective on one of the most monstrous acts in human history. Via a very loose adaptation of the Martin Amis book of the same name.

But where that source material concerned itself with plot – and a romance at the heart of the story – this film version steers clear of such trappings to present a dispassionate account of people acting in a dispassionate way that’s hard to comprehend.

What is The Zone of Interest about?

The Zone of Interest commences with a blank screen. Mysterious and otherworldly noises can be heard on the soundtrack that give way to birds cheeping, and film emerging of a family playing by a river on a beautiful summer’s day.

It’s an idyllic scene, and not how you expect a film about the Holocaust to begin. But The Zone of Interest is starting as it means to go on. As this isn’t the story of what happened in the concentration camps. But rather what was going on next door.

The family in question – husband, wife, and five children, sometimes dressed in lederhosen – could be mistaken for the Von Trapps. However, where in the Amis book these characters are fictional, in the film they are very much real.

The patriarch is German SS Officer Rudolf Höss. And the camp next door to his house is Auschwitz, where he oversaw the extermination of the Jewish population.

Out of sight, but not out of mind

Those atrocities remain out of sight, with events occurring in the charming Höss home. And their even more beautiful garden, with its greenhouse, gazebo, bee hive, vast array of flowers, and even a pool with a slide.

They don’t stay out of mind, however. As at the end of that garden there’s a big wall, with barbed wire at its summit. And while we can’t see what’s happening on the other side of that wall, we can hear the sounds of suffering. First a shout. Then a cry. Followed by a scream. While there’s also the deep rumble of Nazi machinery, as ovens work overtime to fulfil their quota.

The juxtaposition is shocking, and continues throughout the movie. Like the stark image of Rudolf Höss smoking a cigar while admiring his fauna in the foreground, as behind him, the Auschwitz chimneys expel fire and smoke as the Jewish people are slowly and meticulously wiped out.

Planning The Final Solution

Back in the house, the film presents remarkable conversations in the most unremarkable way. Rudolf discusses the logistics of ‘The Final Solution’ with fellow SS officers in the most practical, matter-of-fact way imaginable. As if theirs is a job like any other.

While in the next room wife Hedwig – who fills her wardrobes with clothes taken from Jewish prisoners – jokes with friends about the diamond she found hidden in a tube of toothpaste. And laughs about the fact that she might order more.

It’s tough to watch such scenes. But fascinating to see the Höss family disassociate themselves from actuality. All-the-while enjoying the trappings of their situation, with Rudolf ruthlessly ambitious, and Hedwig taking advantage of her position as the self-style ‘Queen of Auschwitz.’

Is The Zone of Interest good?

Jonathan Glazer’s approach to this material avoids exploiting the horrors of the Holocaust. He rarely moves his camera, with form and composition simple, so there’s no room for sentiment or emotion. Indeed, there are times where these twisted slices of life feel like scenes in a documentary.

Observing monsters in a domestic setting is certainly a jarring approach to such material, and it’s shocking seeing events through the eyes of the Höss children. One son overhears a man being shot for fighting over an apple, and thinks nothing of it. While another plays a game where he locks his brother in the greenhouse, then makes a hissing sound.

As played by the superb Christian Friedel, Rudolf Höss remains inscrutable to the end. The only time he seems stressed is when he thinks the water his children are swimming in has become contaminated by the chemicals he uses to kill. The only time we see Rudolf angry is during a phone call about lilacs that suggests he might have lost touch with reality. But he was real. And his crimes were real.

While we don’t see them in the film, The Zone of Interest does eventually cut to the Auschwitz Museum today. The camera pans over cabinets filled with luggage and shoes that were confiscated from Nazi victims to give a sense of the size and scale of what was happening next door, as the Höss clan laughed and played in their home.

The Zone of Interest score: 5/5

The Zone of Interest is a film about the Holocaust that doesn’t depict the Holocaust. But it’s a powerful piece, one that both shocks and disturbs by dealing in the mundane and banal just a few yards away from those atrocities. And by giving evil a very human face.

The Zone of Interest was reviewed at the London Film Festival, and will be released in the US on December 8, 2023. For more Movie reviews, head here.