The Zone of Interest

I’m an avid movie watcher, of course I’ve had my fair share of movie nights and days spent binge watching TV shows. And as an avid movie watcher, I always tune in to the Oscars to see what filmography I have yet to discover. One film in particular which was nominated for five awards and won two, Best Sound and International Feature Film, is “The Zone of Interest.” One of my favorite historical topics has always been World War II, not because I enjoy what happened, just that the history of it has always intrigued me. 
    Throughout world history, there have been many horrifying and tremendously tragic events, the Holocaust is definitely one of those. After reading much about it, of course I go to watch the movies and TV Shows based on it as well. Many well known and well done films, in both mine and the Academy’s opinion, include “Schindler’s List”, “Life is Beautiful”, “Saving Private Ryan”, and a more recent one, “The Zone of Interest.” The reasons I believe why these movies were acknowledged for how well done they were made is because when directors are tasked with portraying such horrendous events from history onto the screen for people to watch, it is not only critical to accurately portray what happened but to transmit the right emotions and knowledge to the audience. 
    In TZoI, this is exemplified extremely well as Jonathan Glazer makes sure to include the smallest of details throughout the film to make points that could be interpreted in different ways. As a director, I think Glazer did a wonderful job with this as themes and messages in movies aren’t always supposed to be obvious.
    This film, which was based on a book with the same title, is inspired by the real life story of Rudolf Höss –who was a German SS officer in command of the Auschwitz concentration camp and took part in killing nearly one million Jewish prisoners– and his family, who all lived right next to the camp. As you watch the movie, most of what you see is a German family living a paradisial life with their big house, beautiful garden, and tranquility. One may think this is all it is but really the whole meaning behind this horrifyingly pleasant life is the haunting cruelty that takes place right then and there. 
    While an ignorant German family is living their best lives millions are dying right next to their backyard. The screams of agony that are heard when the camera zooms into the gorgeous roses and azaleas in the backyard, the ashes and bones that flow into the river that the children swim in, the smoke that is seen everyday and every night from the bedrooms of the family, every scene focusing on the horrifying events yet not showing the viewers exactly what is happening. 
    “The Zone of Interest” is an example of a very deep and powerfully done film as the themes are very complex and you must be very attentive and pensive to figure out what the director is trying to show the audience. For this reason I believe that this movie rightfully earned the Oscar for Best International Feature Film and I hope many can come to see and learn from this beautifully done movie.