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The Zone
of Interest (2023)
  
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Directed
by:
Jonathan
Glazer |
COUNTRY
USA/United Kingdom/Poland |
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GENRE
Historical drama |
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NORWEGIAN TITLE
The
Zone of Interest |
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RUNNING
TIME
105 minutes |
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Produced
by:
James Wilson
Ewa Puszczynska |
Written by
(based on the novel by Martin Amis):
Jonathan Glazer |
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Cast includes:
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CHARACTER |
ACTOR/ACTRESS |
RATING |
|
Rudolf Höss |
Christian Friedel |
 ½ |
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Hedwig Höss |
Sandra Hüller |
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Oswald Pohl |
Ralph Herforth |
- |
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Gerhard Maurer |
Daniel Holzberg |
- |
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Arthur
Liebehenschel |
Sascha Maaz |
- |
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Eleonore Pohl |
Freya Kreutzkam |
- |
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Linna Hensel |
Imogen Kogge |
- |
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Klaus Höss |
Johann Karthaus |
- |
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Heidetraut Höss |
Lilli Falk |
- |
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Inge-Brigitt Höss |
Nele Ahrensmeier |
- |
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Hans-Jürgen Höss |
Luis Noah Witte |
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Review
This handsomely photographed and nicely
structured WWII drama invites you into the respectable upper class
household of the Höss family, who live in safety and affluence right
outside the gates of Auschwitz. While the children play with their
latest toys and their mother is busy trying on leftover dresses and
fur coats, their father and husband is busy planning more efficient
ways of disposing of and cremating the prisoners inside the camp.
The filmmaker behind this rather debilitating film experience is
Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast,
Birth), who himself adapted
Martin Amis' novel and worked for years with the production. In
depicting the superficial daily life within the Höss household,
The Zone of Interest challenges your own gravitation towards a
perception of normalcy in the face of the unspeakable. It's a taxing
and in many ways stagnant, but nevertheless very effective move. And
Glazer's aesthetically pleasing images of Frau Höss' uncluttered and
unblemished house put everything into a particularly unpleasant
perspective. The film reaches its artistic and emotional zenith with
a handful of effective juxtapositions in which the atrocities are
never seen, but certainly heard, perceived and felt. Christian
Friedel and Sandra Hüller are perfectly cast as Herr und Frau Höss,
although this is never really about the characters as such. The
effective score is by British experimental composer Mica Levi.
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