REVIEW: The Zone of Interest is 2023’s most important film

It’s been nearly 80 years since the end of the Holocaust, the most infamous of all genocides. But in the 20th and 21st centuries, there have been many other genocides. The Tutsi in Rwanda, the Uyghur in China. For almost all points of history, in one of corner of the world there is a genocide occurring. It’s unfortunately becoming a defining aspect of humanity, but many humans think of those who commit genocide as not quite human. Who are those to choose to commit genocide? How do they live their day?

The Zone of Interest is a Holocaust film specifically concerned with this question. It stars Christian Friedel (from the White Ribbon and Babylon Berlin) and Sandra Hüller (from Toni Erdmann and Anatomy of a Fall) as the Commandant of Auschwitz Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig. The film doesn’t engage in the depiction of the atrocities, but instead concerns itself with the domestic life of the married couple and their children.

This is easily the most unique Holocaust film that’s ever been made. It does reveal many aspects of what life was like during the Holocaust, such as Hedwig referring to dresses taken from the prisoners at the camp as coming from Canada, and the fires burning in the night surprising and shocking visitors staying at their house. Auschwitz and the death of over 1.1 million there are never explicitly talked about, for they are constantly on the audience’s mind.

A majority of this film depicts the Holocaust in its negative space. The main family have built their home life in a residence mere meters away from the camp. Screams and bullets can be constantly heard in the background, mixed into the audio in a way so that it’s always noticeable but easy to miss. The characters are constantly reminded of the horrors around them, but constantly ignoring them. It’s merely a solution, something that must be endured for the family to build their dream home. But what is a family that tries to build a home in this setting?

Both lead performers do a great job in their roles, showing the happiness and the sadness they hide. I spoke with Friedel who tells me this was a very tough film for him to make, but one which he is immensely proud of. “Sometime we were unsure, we felt sometimes uncomfortable because was it right or was it wrong, what are we doing here?” But it was through frequent discussions with his co-star as well as the director Johnathan Glazer (the director of Under the Skin and Birth) that the three realized the importance of their work.

While we see that both parents love their children, it’s clear they both also despite the Jews. They see them as not worth living, their possessions better used in the hands of non-Jewish people. This film is about watching a family live their life and feel the disgust towards them grow inside you. Friedel tells me that growing up in Germany he knew of Höss as the commandant of Auschwitz and a man who contributed to a great evil. “But I don’t know that Rudolf Höss and his family lives so close to the camp. That was really new for me, and I really liked the idea to change the perspective on the Holocaust and to observe the family.”

The Zone of Interest is an outstanding film, one that does what all good films do. It challenges the audience, and demands to consider the reality of a situation. It’s a film that reminds us in these troubling times that you don’t have to be evil to commit a genocide, you just have to do the action. To diminish a culture, to displace a group, to destroy people. That is genocide, and this film expertly reminds its viewers of this fact. And most importantly, those that commit genocide are just like the people they’re killing. They have families, they laugh, they love, they bleed. This film gets a 5/5, you can watch it in cinemas now, and you can watch my interview with Friedel below.