[Quick Summary: SS Commandant Rudolf Hoss and his wife Hedwig build a perfect life on the other side of the fence from a concentration camp.]
THREE THOUGHTS:
1) SCRIPT. This is well-written script that zips along at 76 pgs. I liked the first 2/3, but the last 1/3 focused mostly on Rudolf, and I missed the family dynamics.
2) AUDIO. This film generated a lot of Oscar buzz around the effectiveness of this film's audio track because one could hear, but not see, the concentration camps.
In the crowded genre of WWII films, this was a very different, point of view.
3) SHOW NOT TELL. The script also had a very different point of view, that emphasized a normal German family treating unusual circumstances as normal.
It often showed, but did not tell, that things were very wrong, as in the scene below:
EXT. ROCKY INLET, SOLA RIVER - MORNING
The canoe is moored on a small beach.
Hans and Inge-Brigit splash in the shallows nearby, teasing each other.
Rudolph stands waist deep in the river upstream, a fishing rod in his hand.
He stands very still, focusing on his float in hope of a bite.
He flinches suddenly. Looks down at the water he's standing in. Then returns his focus to the float.
Then, feeling something brushing past his thigh, flinches again.
He looks down at the water. He puts his hand in and pulls out a fragment of a bone.
A human eye socket.
We look at him through it.
He drops it then wades out Hurriedly.
He throws down his rod on the bank and hurries along the shoreline, lapping dead fish, towards the children. Signaling for them to get out as he approaches.
RUDOLF: Come on out. Out.
They come to shore reluctantly.
He towels them off anxiously.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I heard the apt phrase "banality of evil" applied to this film. I liked that the characters' consciences are seen, even if they may not say so.
The Zone of Interest (2023)(undated)
by Jonathan Glazer
Based on the novel by Martin Amis
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