Even without a single scene of violence, The Zone of Interest is the most terrifying and unsettling movie of the year. A Holocaust drama unlike any other, the film keeps the horrors at a distance, even though they are ever-present.
Christian Friedel plays Rudolf Hoss, the commandant of Auschwitz. His work turning the camp into a model of lethal efficiency has boosted his reputation among Nazi high command. Despite sharing a wall with a place where people are massacred every night, his wife Hedwig (Sandra Huller) has turned their house into something out of Better Homes and Gardens. The contrast couldn't be starker, even if Lukasz Zal's camera never ventures into the waking nightmare next door. The film is not subtle, nor is it blunt. It reveals what Hannah Arendt called "the banality of evil" in little moments that have a big impact, without emotional outbursts or needling music.
The Hoss family experiences the same ups and downs as most people: marital strife, disobedient kids, work stress. Birthdays, parties, recreation. But writer-director Jonathan Glazer (transforming Martin Amis's novel) does this not to evoke sympathy for these people. There's no attempt to "understand" the Nazi mindset, because the couple at its center - and their family and coworkers - feel absolutely no guilt or conflict about their attitude, lifestyle or actions.
The most gutting example of this is when Hedwig's mother comes to visit. While touring the garden, she (Stephanie Petrowitz) casually mentions that her former boss has been sent to a camp. Instead of horror or even the mildest sympathy, she's annoyed that she wasn't able to get the curtains she admired in her apartment. This casual cruelty is common throughout. Even when the furnaces blaze at night, they don't look away because of what the fires and smoke represent. They'd just rather not deal with the smell and the ash.
Both Friedel and Huller turn in extraordinary work. The latter especially is having an incredible year, between her icy turn here and her much more mysterious work in Anatomy of a Fall. Reuniting with Mica Levi, the score is haunting, deployed at just the right moments. And I have to again mention Lukasz Zal's cinematography. There are plenty of long takes that never show off, and some experimentations with thermal imaging in surreal interludes. But all of the craftspeople come together for a finale that knocked me flat.
This is a massive achievement from Jonathan Glazer. The nearly decade-long wait since Under the Skin was worth it. This is one of the best films of the year and one that will be remembered for decades to come.
