Ever since Alain Resnais first addressed the subject in the mid-1950s, several films over more recent decades have concerned the Holocaust. Some of these pictures have tried realistically to depict the horror of the extermination camps. Others, like Schindler’s List or most recently The Tattooist of Auschwitz, have told the stories of those being saved or the lucky ones who survived, set against the backdrop of the horror, but ending on an upbeat note. All of these approaches raise problems. How can modern, well-fed actors suggest the appalling nature of starvation and brutality that was at the centre of camp life? How can scenes shot in a modern studio with today’s sensibilities ever do justice to the dreadful scale of industrial genocide carried out by the Nazis? And does making an optimistic film about the camps allow the viewer to overlook the awfulness of the lives of those condemned to the daily atrocities that took place in Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, or any of the other death camps?
The Zone of Interest takes an entirely new approach. There is not a single scene that depicts the violence of life in Auschwitz. Instead, we see the regular domesticities of a wealthy German family going about their daily business. It is the Höss family, and the head of the household, Rudolf, is commandant of the camp. Over the wall of this residence is Auschwitz-Birkenau. We see the watchtowers in the distance. We get glimpses of the chimneys belching smoke from mass ovens where thousands of bodies are being burned. At night, the camp glows as the fires rage continuously. But it is left entirely to our imagination and to previous knowledge we have about Auschwitz to suggest the indescribable horror of genocide that is going on there.
Jonathan Glazer has written and directed this film. He has only directed a few other movies, but they have all been unusual and distinctive, including Sexy Beast (2000) and Under the Skin (2013). He has also directed many award-winning pop videos and several TV ads, including the Levi’s Jeans ‘Odyssey ad’. Glazer very loosely based The Zone of Interest on the book of the same name by Martin Amis, published in 2014. But like other Glazer adaptations, he has moved on from the book, with its interpersonal three-way relationships, into something more grand and certainly very much more cinematic. Filming took place in 2021 around Auschwitz. Although the film is a British-Polish co-production, all the actors are German, and the dialogue is in German throughout.
War Classics – Enemy at the Gates