The Zone of Interest - Movie Review 

Adding onto the scene you guys talked about at 16:00 - the older brother locked his younger brother in the greenhouse and made a hissing noise mimicking a gas chamber.

The scene where the boots are washed has a different meaning then you ascribe to it. When the camera cuts to a shot from above, you can see that the servant is washing blood from the boots. The visitors do not need to remove their boots because theirs are not covered in blood like the commandants. The girl in the night time scenes is based on a real person. Jonathan Glazer met her. She recently died, and the film is dedicated to her. Although she was just a teen, she wanted to try to alleviate the suffering of the prisoners. The music she played on the piano was written by a prisoner, smuggled out, and left for her to find.

Excellent analysis of the film. Just wanted to point out that in the greenhouse scene, the older brother makes a strange hissing sound after he locks his younger brother inside. The hissing sound mimics the sound of gas.

I believe the mother could smell the bodies while the family was immune to the smell. She was chugging that alcohol trying to bear it but couldn’t.

amazing how at the end he takes one last look down down the dark halls, maybe for a moment wondering how he will be remembered. which side of history would he be on? and ironically history forgets people like him, and honors the victims that the nazis tried so hard to erase. brilliant.

Wonderful review. I am German ,62 years old, and we need never to forget!!!!

They diidn't need to take off their shoes, because their shoes weren't coverred in guts and blood.

I watched this at TIFF and could not shake it from my mind. Jonathan Glazer's choices in this film, are genius. To start with 3 min of black and just have the sound, was such a simple, yet effective choice that lets us know, this is a film we need to listen to, literally. Throughout the film, there were a number of times I thought, "I can't believe this actually happened." The whole film felt surreal to me.

In regard to the flash forward to modern day Auschwitz … the thing that struck me was the people cleaning. Glazer doesn’t show us just the buildings and personal items of those murdered. Those horrific images could have been shown with nobody else in them. They are juxtaposed against the cleaning staff going about their mundane tasks. It came off to me like he was trying to say that even with the physical evidence right in front of you, people will still put blinders on and ignore the horrors of war and genocide.

"A Polish girl who lives near the Höss family risks her life to smuggle fruit into the camp. Filmed on a thermal camera, we watch her as she leaves apples and pears in the trenches for prisoners to find. Director Jonathan Glazer included this character after he met a real-life 90-year-old Polish woman, named Alexandria, who brought food to the Auschwitz prisoners when she was 12 years old"

Possibly the most perfect film I have seen in decades.

I have to say this is one of the best videos on this film that I’ve seen yet. You just gained a fan/subscriber. Great work!

I just saw this movie. I just needed to hear some discourse about it. The sound in the background (the trains, dogs, gunshots, yelling and industrial sounds as well as the natural) was like a character itself. The Mother in laws note...I want to know what she wrote. It looked like the mother put it in a safe? The fast moving river where Hoss went to get his sandals and address his wife was oddly relaxing. At the end as he descends the stairs , retching at every floor was him descending into hell. Challenging movie. I really liked it.

I'm a regular cinema-goer and this film demands I return to piece it together now I have a better understanding of the soundscape, the visual aesthetic and the underlying themes. It's not Son of Saul, so there is no moments of shutting one's eyes, to the contrary the film repays looking & listening harder and paying attention. The night scenes with the girl are beautiful, and moving offering some hope out of the darkness. I understand she is based on a real character and had met the team. A worth 'A' score, and I'd recommend it to anyone who loves cinema and where it can take you if you are willing to participate.

Great review! At the party and he called home at midnight to the wife. Didnt he say that he thought about how to gas the people at the party? His own “coworkers”?

A film which reminds us that heaven and hell are not otherworldly in some far afterlife…. Heaven and hell exist right here on earth. A film that also reminds us that beauty and decay will always exist simultaneously. Is it right ? No. Glazer is not looking to change anything with this film but to remind us that every day we live we are AWARE of the atrocities that go on still today. This house just happened to be the perfect metaphorical representation of that. Don’t look over the wall.. look at the flowers, look at the garden. Life continues as beautiful as ever never mind the smoke rising or trains coming in. Those people aren’t you, you’re safe inside your little zone your safe space protecting you.… yes we know what’s going on but… who cares? Of course this is the view of the main Nazi characters but even though we did not commit these atrocities the people watching the film…. Is going to a museum to take pictures to keep the memory going on and containing these atrocities behind a glass make it better?

Him going down the stairs is him dying and going to hell. The museum maintenance represents us not forgetting history and maintaining our memories.

I just watched it last night. I can’t let it go. It perfectly shows the quiet horror and how it affects each member of the family. The oldest son being groomed by his father on horseback, then beginning to practice on the younger brother. The baby that is being neglected and can’t stop screaming for help. The youngest daughter who sleep walks. The mother that has to detach from everyone in order to keep her “dream” real and going along. The father who does the same, but still feels for his children the way the mother cannot. The grandmother who speaks in a blasé way about losing when bidding on a Jewish woman’s items. The same woman she had cleaned for, and the same items she has secretly coveted. It shows how far this family has come, and the way they have had to literally climb over dead bodies to do so. Then the grandmother when faced with the true horror of her daughter’s living situation, chooses to take flight instead of directly confront it. This movie is absolutely perfectly dreadfully done. It treats the Jewish people with the utmost dignity by not showing their suffering full on, it seeks to not exploit them in that way. Rather, it forces the audience to have their faces shoved into the full reality of the situation. It should be a must watch for everyone. Especially now. We are no better than the very well educated and sophisticated Germans at that time. We have to keep talking about the way true evil can quietly exist next to the banality of life, or we may find ourselves reliving the horror.

Excellent movie! Great review. I’ve watched several reviews and explanation videos. No ones seems to have touched on the infidelity of both the husband and wife, also during the 2nd negative scene where the woman hid the apples. Why was there a pig walking next to the camp at night. Very deep film.

Great job to you both on the analyzation of the film. I saw it and had some questions but both your breakdowns and perspectives echoed just what I was thinking and questioning and you both clarified my thoughts. This film is an experience. It's meant to be analyzed, questioned and learned from. I've seen most of the Best Picture nominees and this one currently stands out amongst the rest.

I have a map of the Auschwitz complex. The Hoss villa was right next to Auschwitz I which is the older part of the camp.

Have yall seen The Act Of Killing? I’m almost positive the main character gagging at the end is a nod to the end of the documentary, it’s pretty much the same thing contextually

Wonderful analysis! It's a shame I won't be able to watch this masterpiece at a cinema since they wont be showing it where I live. I feel like this is among the few new films that truly deserve a cinema-going experience.

I’m trying to find somewhere reasonably local to watch this film, but great review - you’ve reassured me that the film is going to be exactly what I’m expecting.

Absolute masterpiece! I saw it for the second time tonight, with Mr Glazer and his team, it Is a fantastic movie, will be a classic forever

Fantastic review guys. Doesn't come out in my country until February but I couldn't make myself turn off your discussion, your analysis was excellent. Sounds very different from the Martin Amis book (which I'd recommend, too).

8:34 when boys says better not do that again, i thought he was telling himself not to peek out his window anymore...

Thank you for your review/ it helped my experience after watching just a few minutes ago as I came out with zero emotion and was conflicted as to why

I can’t wait to see this film. Oh my! Thank you for your review.

Totally agree when you mentioned the culmative nature of this film...saw it with my sister and the terrifying mundaness really hits you by the end. Hopefully more people will see it via word of mouth. Under the Skin is one of my all time favorites in the science fiction/horror genres.

Great review! Thank you. This movie is a masterpiece.

I like this format! And jealous you got to watch it already. Keep going 加油！

I agree with everything you said. The movie could easily be boring. It doesn’t have a typical “plot”, but this powerful and the audio does play a HUGE part in this film. As evil as it is, I really liked it a lot. I am now researching everything I can find on the family, Auschwitz and anything related to the film. I’m so glad I saw it.

I couldn’t help but see parallels to current day - specifically how so many people have just fallen in step behind yet another megalomaniac. Need I call out the orange-haired guy by name?

cool video of a phenominal film....very rare to go into a cinema and a movie from begining to end had the whole audience completly silent and hooked. With the opening shot a 3 minute bank black screen and the minimal beginings of a great eerie soundtrack that fades into birds sweetly singing..............the pace and tone was set the whole audience was locked on silent and spooked......with one collective heavy heart..

Slice of life meets horror. The sound will haunt me for quite some time.

This is like a direct companion piece to COME AND SEE. More like Stay Back and Hear. I'd love to know what filmmakers like Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, Dennis Villeneuve and Christopher Nolan think about it as they also hv made films about human atrocities or pure evil.

The movie does touch on who the Hösses were as far as coming from a background of struggling financially prior to the war. Whereas that house was once owned/occupied by a Jewish family. Mrs. Höss talks about it with her mother about the house and its back story. As well as Mrs. Höss is the one who provides details of their lives prior to their current lives (i.e. the “agreement” of her tending to the children while he strived in his career). It’s very clear that they believed they struggled financially due to the Jews (propaganda), so they weren’t merciful of their actions because they felt they deserved the life they were living.

Great analysis!

have not seen the movie yet cause its not in town’s theater yet. but i read and some say its more darker than schindler’s list

I watched the film last week. And haven't stopped thinking about it. The way the style matches it's subject so perfectly.. It's incredibly mundane or banal. And that reflects the subject. Just ordinary people. Doing their jobs.

Jonathan glazer is a master film maker.i cannot wait to see this.

When the kid locks his little brother in the greenhouse he makes hissing noises as if he’s gassing his little brother.

I don’t feel sympathetic towards the perpetrators very easily but somehow this film made me feel like that and made me understand that the it’s weight is actually on the perpetrators. The fact that Rudolf Hoss died in 1947 just 2 years after the Holocaust speaks a lot. This film for sure helped me forgive some of the perpetrators I know in my like towards whom I’ve been feeling this strange hatred. The weight has been lifted off of my chest. What a great film!!

I was transfixed by the film, though I have to say watching on Prime I thought there was something wrong with the streaming from the opening scene. 😂 I had previously read a lot about Höss, especially his complete absence of imagination. If there's one criticism I have of the film it's that it showed him as more contemplative than I think he was in real life.

At one point in the review the question arises ‘what leads up to something like this happening?’ Question answered would be to watch the brilliant, “Cabaret” I would watch as a companion piece before “Zone of Interest” Everyone in Germany thought they were safe as long as they were not Jewish. Wrong.

The sounds of the crying children and it’s never clear if it’s their baby or one of the children in the camp. The scene in the garden where there is a dog growling and barking and you see the wife chastise their dog and then it cuts to show their dog but their dog isn’t barking. This was legitimately one of the most bone chilling cinematic experiences I’ve ever had.

by far the best review of such a dark viewing

Great review and detailed analysis. I was never bored, the description of domesticity is full of details and every scene tells several stories that make us understand the characters, the situation, the context. No drama needed. That's how we all live life, simply and in denial of other realities. Those scenes of d girl leaving apples while d children are being read d hansel and gretel story (d witch ends in d oven) are powerful and chilling. She existed in reality and rhe fact she helped prisonwrs gives me hope in humanity. I read she was part of the polish resistance. Technically, the usage of that black and white with the shimmering fruit is genius. Ans hunting D end was a punch in d stomach. This movie opened a lot of questions in my mind, including who we are after we die, and d objects that tell our story. Best movie in a very long time for me. But sad and somber, and that's how we should relate to that horror or any horror

I'm trying to decide whether to see this film or not.

Excellent reviews! New subscriber. “Come and See” I’m sure you’ve both seen it. Would love to hear your opinion or connections

movie gave me heavy foxcatcher vibes great vid classy stuff subscribed

I really like this channel. I hope you both continue your reviews because i would like to see much more!

I disagree that he is trying to display total evil, I think it's the normality of these people and the dichotomy! The whole movie displays dichotomy! It's how seemingly normal people can have horrible effects on the world. This goes to the nature of people, it's not unique to the Germans in 1943, this is replicated among human history

In regards to the workers in the house while i guess technically this is a class divide but i believe those were jewish slave laborers. At one point one of them is told that they can have her husbands ashes spread across the river or something along those lines. And in reverse i dont think the local girl is jewish because she plays the note as music rather than reading it or singing it. Putting a note for each word. Unless the note also had sheet music for it. Also the likelyhood of a jewish family hiding within biking distance to auschwitz at this point in the war doesnt really seem too great.

I highly recommend it... . . .

Best analysis of this film on youtube. Subscribed.

An observation too is that after the mother’s note is burned, Mrs Höss says something absolutely stomach churning to the maid. It shows her innate anger and hatred and supports further the character’s indifference, class divide and that assumed superiority. What she is really trying to get rid of is her mother’s judgment. And in the scene where she’s fighting about the transfer, she very subtly mentions their modest beginnings. That seemed to show this need to achieve financial superiority too and that is one of the reasons she is so attached to the house, the garden, and her status, even if it means living next to a murder camp.

And what are you guys drinking? 😊

An alternate, ironic title for this film might be BANALITY.

nature's perfection vs manmade destruction and inhumanity

The banality of evil.

20:38 I wish she had approached the character as someone scared and going along to avoid being killed themselves. Also #careerism. The Germans would have been browbeaten into compliance, silence, etc. Like we were during covid and forced vaccines.

When are we going to get a movie about the Jews living peacefully while children in Gaza are being slaughtered next door? Too soon?

free palestine

This film was absolutely terrible! No plot at ALL!! Also extremely boring

Movie was ass and did not deserve best sound.

The film seems boring to me. I'll probably take LSD before I see it in the theater.