War movies have been around essentially since the start of cinema. Typically defined by their large-scale depictions of battles and violence, they have attracted history buffs and cinephiles for decades. World War II is no stranger to the silver screen. Movies such as Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998), Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds (2009), and Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (2017) have all taken on the war to high degrees of success. While The Zone of Interest is the latest depiction of World War II, it takes an entirely unique approach to the war movie.

The film follows the lives of the Höss family, including the father, Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), the Nazi soldier who served as the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp for three years. Other members of the family include his wife Hedwig Höss (Sandra Hüller) and their five children. The film forces the viewer to think about the human capacity for evil. The movie follows their day-to-day lives living in a house directly bordering the concentration camp.

What makes The Zone of Interest so distinct is not its subject matter or plot. What distinguishes the movie is its refusal to follow traditional war movie filmmaking methods. Director Jonathan Glazer makes the purposeful choice to not show anything that happens in the camp. Instead, the camp exists as a backdrop to our character’s lives. As the Höss children try to fall asleep, they peep out their window to see smoke coming from the crematoriums of the camp. As they play outside during the day, they can hear gunshots and the rumbling of machinery.

The film forces the viewer to think about the human capacity for evil.

While the lives of the Höss family seem normal, the audience is aware of the true nature of their situation. By making their lives ordinary, Glazer asks the viewer to reflect on themselves. In a world filled with more distractions than ever, are we ourselves overly complacent with the world around us?

While incredibly subtle, the performances in the movie are brilliant. Friedel depicts the truly evil Rudolf Höss in a way that reminds the viewer that even the worst humans are still human. When not doing his job, he participates in typical activities such as reading his children bedtime stories and going swimming. Similarly, Hüller plays the role of a wife who cares more about the crops growing in her backyard than the horror her husband is committing on the other side of the fence. The sound design in the film is incredibly overbearing, never letting the audience forget what is going on in the background of the characters’ lives. In contrast, the cinematography is passive, focusing on wide and static shots.

One problem with The Zone of Interest, albeit a minor one, is its accessibility. While having a short runtime of 101 minutes, the experimental nature of the movie, combined with its inherently devastating subject matter, might put off certain viewers. The film is also exclusively in the German language, causing non-German speakers to rely on subtitles. With all these factors, the movie becomes hard to recommend to the casual viewer.

The Zone of Interest is a crushing film that forces its viewers to sit with inexcusable villainy. Its unconventional style of filmmaking will lead to it being discussed and analyzed for decades in the future. For any film buff who wants a completely new experience or any historians who are interested in a different perspective on World War II, The Zone of Interest is a must-watch.

Rating: ★★★★★