The Zone of Interest * * * * *

Auschwitz from a different perspective. 

Director Jonathan Glazier last feature film Under the Skin was ten years ago. It was an outstanding film and in keeping with his previous work:  Birth, and Sexy Beast.  But Zone of Interest might just be his finest work.  

It is about the Holocaust and Auschwitz concentration camp.  But it does not focus on the  confrontational horror which most films on that subject have given us. You will not witness an enactment of the terrible human suffering. Quite the opposite.

After a black screen and industrial music for two minutes, we are presented with an idyllic picture.  A young family picnicking on the banks of a river on a summer's afternoon. A young mother and father and their pretty children splashing in the waters. They drive home tired and happy at the end of a beautiful day.  In the morning Dad comes downstairs to go off to work. He is wearing his SS Commander uniform.

Adapted from a book written by Martin Amis, Zone of Interest shows us  the charmed life of Commander Rudolf Hoss and his family.  The family home is right next to Auschwitz.  Only a high wall separates it from the horror. 

What is happening over the wall is never seen and can barely be heard. It's a restrained ambient and distant noise of occasional screams, children wailing, gunfire, guards shouting, dogs barking.   Then there is the smoke constantly pouring from the chimneys.  

But this family aren't ogres relishing the pain and suffering on the other side of the wall.  They seem to be aware of it and not aware of it at the same time.   Confiscated items from the deceased are constantly delivered to their home:  A fur coat, jewelry.  "Let me show you what I got the other day", Mrs Hoss says to her friends and shows them a diamond that had been hidden in a tube of toothpaste, "Aren't they clever?!" she smilingly comments. 

In another scene their son plays with gold teeth in the same way another boy who might collect butterflies or birds eggs.

Her visiting mother is so happy for Mrs Hoss and her lovely home  It warms her heart to see the beautiful garden and lovely grandchildren.  "You've done so well, I am so pleased for you" she says, in the way any loving parent would. (Even so, after a short while she finds the subtle noise and smell too much).

We see Rudolf Hoss in his home office from time to time. He dictates a stern memorandum warning officers about picking the flowers.  He hates to see them die prematurely. Another time, he meets engineers who have devised an excellent new furnace that can run continuously. He commends them on their ingenuity and promises an order.

Most of the film is set over a glorious summer.  With long sunny days, meals outside, idling on the lawn and playing in the pool.  The children looking free and happy in shorts sleeves and sandals. The spoilt family dog joining in. The irony is, the life of this family is so matter-of-fact and mundane it almost becomes boring to watch them. 

Director Jonathan Glazier knows this will happen to us and takes us to yet another place: Like many loving fathers Rudolf Hoss likes to read his children a book before they sleep - Grimms Fairy Tales. And in tonal drop out we are given images of a young girl planting apples in what looks like a waste land. A dark place where, in Grimms style, the fairytale speaks of death in an oven.

Otherwise the greatest challenge facing this happy family is Rudolf Hoss's promotion and them having to leave this domestic utopia. Mrs Hoss is heartbroken and angry about having to leave their home. In the end Rudolf Hoss goes to Oranienburg alone.  It is there he takes on the challenge of organising the "final solution" commencing with the process of of seventy thousand people in a very short time. 

His logistical plan, including extra trains and a newly installed furnace is presented to the committee with all the confidence and objectivity of a well experienced project planner. Then he successfully negotiates a transfer back to his beloved Auschwitz and the family nest. "Daddy's coming home!" Such joy.

It is only later that you realise what you have seen, who you have been rubbing shoulders with, how you have empathised with the domestic bliss they wanted for themselves. As surely as witnessing trauma, images will come back to you. The intimidated domestic staff, Mrs Hoss's ocasional sadistic outbursts, the rush to clean his boots, the children off to school, the love Hoss extends to his horse, his dog (any dog), his fishing, his precious family.

But wait, what were those anguished sounds on the wind, what is that smoke? what was that ash in the river?  Why does he vomit? What have I actually witnessed?

It might be one of the most profound use of the unseen and the unspoken in cinema that you will ever experience.