THE ZONE OF INTEREST (2023) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Jonathan Glazer
Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Martyna Poznanski,
Medusa Knopf, Audrey Isaev, Stephanie Petrowitz
For most of this movie, you're eavesdropping on the mundane activities of a moderately prosperous German family, the catch being that the dad in this case, the guy with the really bad haircut, is Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, and their beautiful house and pool and garden are just outside the wall of the camp. The movie doesn't show you what'g going on on the other side of the wall, but you hear it - the muffled sounds of heavy machinery, shouts, screams, dogs barking, gun shots. You see only what the family sees: the smoke from a passing locomotive, the razor wire on the top of the wall, a glowing red light reflected on the curtains of somebody's bedroom, black smoke coming from the chimneys. But look at this nice fur coat and these clothes that just came in. Yesterday I found a diamond in a tube of toothpaste. Those Jews are clever, aren't they? Here you can (literally) smell the roses. Why would anybody want to leave? The banality of evil and the evil of banality. This is a horror movie.
