PG-13 2023 War/Crime 1h 46m
I had high hopes for The Zone of Interest. It’s a foreign film (it’s from Poland and German is the spoken language) but has broken into the U.S. market and has gotten some good buzz. Unfortunately, it did not hold my interest and I can’t recommend it.
The Zone of Interest is about Nazi commandant Rudolf Hoss and his family whose backyard abuts the Auschwitz concentration camp. Hoss’ job consists of figuring out the most efficient ways to kill the Jews. As viewers we watch him attend a sales pitch for a new chambered furnace that will allow one chamber to be cleaned and readied while another chamber is in use. It’s disturbing for sure, but what the movie depicts is the mundaneness of the day-to-day of it all. Rudolf is assisting in horrible things, but he is not a crazed monster. It would be easier to think that the atrocities of the Nazi regime were committed by monsters. Instead, it is being done by misguided humans. Rudolf’s wife, Hedwig, tries on a new (to her) fur coat that was confiscated by a new arrival. She and the family bask in the luxury of their surroundings without any guilt or acknowledgment of the suffering occurring just over the wall. Hedwig’s mother visits and is impressed by their home and yard. However, she has a hard time sleeping at night because of the glow and awareness of the furnace churning out her window. She finds it sickening and leaves in the middle of the night.
The movie is not bad, but it is dull. The dullness is the point. The evil is all mundane. To me, this point was well made in the first hour of the movie. However, it’s a nearly two-hour movie.
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