The Zone of Interest is already arriving in your living rooms
The area of interestthe latest masterpiece by director Jonathan Glazer, airs this evening on Canal Plus (which offers us a November program of the highest quality). This film, which won the Grand Prix at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, marks a powerful return for the director, ten years after his bold film Under the skinwith Scarlett Johansson. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Martin Amis published in 2014, The area of interest offers a disturbing and unprecedented insight into life in the heart of the horror of the Holocaust.
The film’s plot is set during World War II and follows the daily life of Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), the commandant of the Auschwitz camp, and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller). This couple tries to build an idyllic home in a house with a garden, right next to the field. The film’s opening features a sunny day on the banks of a river, where the Höss family enjoys simple moments of happiness. Then they return home, to what is called “the zone of interest,” a space that, in reality, is adjacent to the atrocities taking place behind the camp’s walls.
The banality of evil
The film creates palpable tension by contrasting this seemingly normal life with the horror that unfolds offscreen. Glazer chooses not to directly show the suffering of the victims; instead it immerses us in an atmosphere where distant screams and the noise of crematorium ovens mix with laughter and family rituals. This bold approach highlights the Höss family’s callousness to the horrors they encounter. The elements of the extermination camp are only distant echoes, symbolized by objects such as a fur coat or jewels, vestiges of destroyed lives.
This film doesn’t just depict evil in its raw form; it also presents Nazi figures in a human light. In doing so, Glazer pushes us to think about human nature and our capacity to generate atrocities. This humanization of the characters, albeit disturbingit is essential to understanding the abyss of cruelty of which humanity is capable. The director puts us face to face with a disturbing truth: the Nazis, like all human beings, had families and dreams, yet they participated in one of the darkest periods in history.
Through The area of interestGlazer questions our very nature and forces us to ask questions about evil and the banality of evil. By immersing the viewer in this disturbing reality, the film acts as a distorting mirror, forcing us to look inside ourselves and recognize the dark potential that each of us may contain.
Source: Cine Serie
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