TIFF 2023 | Movie Review: "The Zone Of Interest"; Mundane Story, Exceptional Film
10/12 ForReel Score | 4/5 Stars
The story director Jonathan Glazer has captured in The Zone Of Interest is likely the most uninteresting story you’ll see in a movie this year - perhaps even ever. Therefore, approaching The Zone Of Interest with the expectation that this film exists to offer audiences a traditional narrative structure and a conflict in need of a resolution would be a grave mistake. Because as Glazer’s narrative meanders through the mundane everyday lives of Nazis, the power of the film isn’t in what’s being shown - it’s in what’s being heard, and the circumstances that quite literally surround the film’s primary setting.
This is usually the part of my review where I insert a synopsis of the film, but the only summary I can really give about The Zone of Interest is that it plays like a fly on the wall of a Nazi community a stone’s throw away from Auschwitz. The characters at the center of the story are the couple Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) and Rudolf Höss (Christian Fridel) who is a commandant of the infamous concentration camp. The cinematography takes a very stand-off approach to capturing their day-to-day life. Cameras are left in the distance, pushed in a corner, or set on the other side of a room simply watching the actions and conversations of this family and the individuals of this community. There are no shot/reverse shots during conversations, and most sequences are either extended takes or cuts from one camera to another as if we’re flipping through surveillance cameras.
Image courtesy of TIFF
But, as Jonathan Glazer explains in his Q&A at the Toronto International Film Festival’s premiere screening, there are two movies happening here: the one you see, and the one you hear. And it’s the film you hear that instills the horror and sense of monstrosity that enwraps The Zone Of Interest. Though the mood might be tranquil in the community (save a relatively menial disagreement between Rudolf and Hedwig), through the audio experience, the audience is constantly reminded how opposite - dire and dreadful - the circumstances are for those imprisoned in the nearby camp.
Without the distant auditory sounds from the nearby concentration camp, the movie is not a movie - at least, not one anyone should take interest in watching. The observational nature of The Zone Of Interest does not work by itself. Isolate this community in any old countryside and watch these individuals go about their daily lives away from the horrors of Auschwitz, and you have a slice of life film without purpose. It’s the unannounced, unpredictable, unsensationalized audio component to the film paired with the community’s unabashed apathy that brings the true horror to the experience of watching The Zone Of Interest.
Glazer, of course, infuses his own enigmatic style to the film as well. Film negative sequences of a character with a deep, chilling horn-like score doubles on the haunting nature of the film in a visceral way, in addition to other hallmarks of Glazer’s odd and uncanny style sprinkled throughout the film.
If you get to the end of The Zone Of Interest and are not sure what to make of it at that moment, don’t feel alone. This is a film that really lends itself to contemplation and discussion to better grasp Glazer’s themes and intentions. Upon further assessment myself, I’ve come to realize that what I dislike about The Zone Of Interest - the mundaneness and boring nature of the subjects - makes the film great in respect to the larger scope of this environment. And the things that are great about it - the sound design and installation of intrinsic horror - then make the film exceptional.
Acting/Casting - 2 | Visual Effects and Editing - 2 | Story and Message - 2 | Entertainment Value - 1 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 2 | Reviewer’s Preference - 1 | What does this mean?