FCN Movie Club - The Zone of Interest (2023)

Hello movie fans. Today I want to talk to you about a movie that curiously was the winner of an Oscar for "Best International Film" this year. Released last year, this film has received numerous nominations, as well as a varied amount of praise and good reviews for its production and direction. Based on the novel of the same name, the film was written and directed by Jonathan Glazer in conjunction with studio A24, among other producers. The film was originally shot in German, Polish and Yiddish, but its international release achieved a notorious success and reach. The film combines psychological suspense with drama and the war genre, being set during World War II and the Holocaust.

The film begins by showing us the Höss family, which consists of Rudolf Höss, his wife Hedwig and their five children. Rudolf is the commandant of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, where he curiously lives with his family in an idyllic house right next door. Rudolf proves to be a loving father by spending time with his family, going fishing, swimming and playing in their garden. But, he also does his job as a commander and approves the construction of a crematorium, which is soon put into operation. The house is surrounded by walls, on the other side of which you can see the concentration camp, with screaming prisoners, gunshots and burning ovens in the background.

Below, I will leave you the trailer of the movie:

Honestly... I was expecting something different... and that's what I saw. Although I wasn't completely impressed and was left with a strange feeling at the end, I don't deny that the movie is good. The style of production and photography is something that is rarely seen in current films, which makes this work different from most. And that's what I get from start to finish, a story told in a way that hasn't been done before. If I didn't take into account all the background it possesses being a war and historical work of one of the darkest times in human history, what I would see during this hour and a half would leave me indifferent, with a somewhat unsatisfactory and rather different ending.

It is worth noting that this film has received multiple positive choices, praise and even nominations and awards for its level of production and direction. Even the Rotten Tomatoes site gave it a 93% critical rating, which is a lot, really. And while it has a way of playing with shots, still cameras and background sounds intermingled with those present, making a suspenseful contrast with a story of a seemingly ordinary and idyllic family, the film in general does not provoke me anything, in the end. While it is true that there are many psychological thrillers and war movies that can be much better than this one, I will not deny that Jonathan Glazer and the A24 studio did a good job.

What strikes me about the whole film is the uniqueness of the characters, starting with Rudolf Höss, which from the first minutes we can see him as the typical exemplary father who spends time with his family and his wife, they go swimming, fishing and playing like anyone else, also proving to be a calm, reasonable and loving man. On the other hand, his wife Hedwig Höss proves to be an equally exemplary wife and mother, being caring and protective of her children, teaching and educating them in a good way, as in her time families were raised. If it were just any story, this family would easily go unnoticed along with the rest of the film as it is just the story of their daily lives. But, this is not the case.

We all know by now what the Second World War and the Jewish Holocaust caused in human history, affecting and completely changing it, leaving tens of millions of innocent people dead. This event has had such an impact that even today stories are still being told and films and plays inspired by those times are still being produced. The influence they have had on popular culture and on the following generations was so great that it is now remembered as the darkest era in history. This film reminds us, once again (as other films and works of modern cinema have done many times before) of the number of atrocities that occurred in those times while showing us the daily life of a typical German family of the time. Undoubtedly, this experimental project gives a lot to talk about and reminds us that "reality [far] surpasses fiction".

Personally, I give it a 7/10 rating for the psychological suspense and war drama genre.

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All the best.

By: Nattosheru.