THE ZONE OF INTEREST | The Art of Implied Horror 

I think it's a bad film. It's Nazi porn, like so much Mafia porn. These people were psychopaths without a shred of conscience: in on the crimes from 1923, willing to kill to get ahead. To represent them as 'normal' is a travesty and grants them a humanity they don't deserve. It's particularly bad they the film implies they're in some kind of major denial. That's arrant nonsense: they knew exactly what they were doing; they'd been plotting and orchestrating their crimes for years.

@@nicholasschroeder3678The film definitely does not imply Hoess was in denial. Nor does it imply his wife was in denial. They both explicitly comment on the holocaust and their actions. As you say , they might not deserve their humanity, but unfortunately they are human. That is the point of the film, to anthropomorphize a Nazi family, to show its audience that they are not so different, that we could be these committing these terrible crimes, that we could believe these actions are for the best. Not to fetishize Nazis, thats an absolutely braindead take, did you actually watch the film or are you just mad that Glazer showed support for Gaza?

I can think of few hoss incarnates in our lifetime

When I was in college either in Sociology or Psychology there was this concept we studied 'McDonalization' ... 'following orders', 'trying to survive' ... the locomotive mechanics (or whatever they called) that were in charge of the train that was holding 40 wagons full of people was ... Polish (99.9% likely). He wasn't killing them, he was just having a job so he could survive, since he was Polish his survivor was far from guaranteed ... in fact Polish was next on the list and lots of them died in Auschwitz (probably 1-10 thousand, ironically nothing compared to Jews). .... We watch today Gaza, Israel, Iraq, Bosnia, etc. ... shouldn't we do something to stop that?

I don't buy this for one moment. He joined in 1923. He was in on it from the ground floor: he wasn't a dupe and he wasn't in denial. The autobiography was a whitewash, like Speer's, and so is this very, very bad movie. He and his wife knew exactly what they were doing: they were anything but normal. They were opportunists without conscience, and this movie grants them a humanity and perverse kind of glamour they don't warrant. Just because someone isn't torturing and murdering 24/7 doesn't make them any less criminal or monstrous. Though the world is full of folks like this willing to kill to get ahead, idea that they're normal is false.

@@nicholasschroeder3678 I think the film develops the idea that they are abnormal in their normality really well, and uses that to ask some uncomfortably pointed questions. While Hoss does seem to have been a Nazi by conviction, the people around them - his wife and her mother, mainly - are what the Stasi called 'mitarbeiters,' which is to say, they went along with them in order to have a better life and whose stories are more complex. His wife never lets reality spoil this, while his mother in law initially eulogises the life she has and is then repelled by it. In Hoss, we see someone who has, in the manner of a true psychopath, not got any emotional reaction to the work he is doing or, in one particular case, having what seems to be unremittingly joyless sex with an inmate. But even here, his retching and stomach complaints suggest that some part of him is aware of what he's doing, even if he chooses not to see it. What we have then, is a spread of responses. Hoss is committed to either what he is doing or to his own advancement and keeps the reality of it at bay. His wife doesn't care as long as she has nice things and her mother wants nice things but is revolted. So, which are we? The one who develops moral blindness as long as he's succeeding, the one who had no moral compass at all or the one who finds her moral compass far, far too late? It's brilliant, nuanced and absolutely foul in its implications.

@@Hartley_Hare That's the whole problem with it: the false idea that they were just "mitarbeiters", not the "mitfressers" that they actually were. Höss had been orchestrating these atrocities for 20 years, he wasn't just going along, and his wife knew exactly what he was up to--she just didn't care as long as they got ahead. I don't go along with the notion that it's normal to commit crimes to advance your career, especially crimes against humanity. Maybe I'm naive. When I see the millions freely supporting Trump, I tend to think I am. But going along with evil to get a thinker smear of butter on your bread isn't normal. It's evil. All this film does is ratify the Nazi narrative. We're still being duped by the Nazis.

The smell, which the humans seemed to ignore, must have been horrific for the dog.

I know !

like slaughterhouses?!

you are literally carrying on with life after seeing news of current massacres and atrocities! Stop with the bullshit.

I was freaked out by the very same things. In addition I interpreted the sounds of the spring garden as the sort of healthiness of evil, how the destruction was going about industrially. Did you notice what Frau Hoss did with the note her mother left her, presumably explaining her abrupt departure, but certainly implying her inability to handle her daughter's living situation? She tossed it into her very OWN oven. It felt like, "that's what we do with things we find bothersome."

@@jeremygreen2439 oh my GOSH, brilliant point -- I didn''t even realize she had tossed it in her own oven!!! definitely no coincidence, and like you realized, the 'solution' to things they're annoyed by or can't handle. I was amazed how she didn't even QUESTION anything more about her mother leaving, like shocked, or asking the girls "Did you see her leave? when did she leave? why wouldn't she say goodbye.." Anything half normal, even if her mother HAD explained her inability to stay there. But it just showed the ultimate layer of 'not getting it' and just being actually contemptuous of her mother's probable reasons for leaving that 'paradise'....

@@jeremygreen2439 ps - also great insight into the 'healthiness of evil', literally protected and tended to to by the evil doers, yes -- like when Hoss was on the phone ranting about how no one better bother the lilac bushes

Yes that is poignant to read them German Fairy Tales too but isn't that more of the grooming process to desensitize them or make some association of hearing those horror stories with love and comfort? Germans have the Krampus as Christmas in their culture too he's what comes instead of Santa for the naughty kids. After WW1 many Germans were unemployed and impoverished probably just thought better the Jews suffer than us because Hitler gave them a superiority complex too manipulated them emotionally and psychologically. War is really a social experiment in a sense I suppose ethics of rape and pillaging and murder starvation etc. then still thinking they are "the good guys"...

Subtlety of evil. too 😢

@@seanramsdell4117 that to

So many films can qualify for that, IMO

Hint Gaza hint .

or its the fact that we CANT really do anything about it (and thats most horrific and scary part). We are not in control its our leaders and politicians who deciede the faith of humanity. And them teling us to vote and put trust in them is nothing but a lie and deception for more power. The question is how many people in the past felt devestated that they cant really do anything about the autrocities. Its one thing to protect the Jewish population but its another to ultimetly wanting to stop the gov from continuing the atrocities. In everything that has happened during the Holocaust there was some hope in the people who risked there lives to smugle, or protect their fellow citizens and other citizens who happend to be Jewish. I think that speaks volume but with today i feel like we havent learned anothing and we blindly choose leaders who can care less what we think and throw in distractions through technology and misinformation. Whats even more scary is all the evidence of autrocities happening today and people still thinking that a lot of people being affacted deserve it. That terrifies me a lot :(

It's been happening in Gaza last 70 years Jfc

You are not a holocaust survivor bro its fucking messed up to lie about that shit.

Not to mention when Ms.Hoss tells the Polish House Keeper, " My husband would spread your ashes in the lake," or something along those lines . Clearly, she shows how she's almost embraced the fact her husband is known for " Gassing " people Almost like she brags about it

There are still people who think the Holocaust didn't happen. Or that it didn't kill as many as we know it did.

But today we are not willing to be part, we are forced to be part of the atrocities. Im sure when you wake up in the morning all your thinking is how do i get ready to go to work, or take care of the kids before going to school or talking to your wife or husband about who will pick up food. We are thinking about self preservation because that is something you can control and there is nothing you can do abroad that can ultimately ended the atrocities. The difference is that in the past while the atrocities were happening in peoples own backyards (hence the hope that people were able to help smuggle out and protect Jews even though they risked there own lives), today the atrocities are abroad and a person from USA cant really get into Israel and protect the kids of Gaza. The difference also is that Rudolf Höss is taking part of the atrocities as he is fine with what is happening, comparing that to many people now who are against wars and want the wars to end and would rather have the gov take care of its own citizens as they are struggling to survive. The frightening part is we have people who are ok with what is happening right now and are conviced that people deserve whats happening to them.

Poles and Gypsies don't own media and banks so they don't deserve their place under the sun.

Will need to watch it.

Experience and knowledge is key, in my opinion.

I live in Israel and no, it's not ignored. It's always on the news and there are protests against the events there all the time, but the government never cares enough to make a difference as long as they get their war, which is just as depressing.

💯Yep

💯💯. Love this content

Did you go?

It's not about Germany being bad. It's about evil in its purest form which people are curious and want to learn about. Since AH was Austrian and built the most evil empire in history which was N Germany that is why we get so many films about it. You can literally brainwash and terrorise any nation and people on earth into committing all kinds of crimes, all you need is power, control of education system, media, time and so on and of course a tyrannic psychopath in control of all of it. Unfortunately it was Germany who happened to be it.

Aww. Well, into every life a little ash must fall, waffel.

You sound awfully triggered, do you need a bit of kugel?

Its because genocides on a similar scale keep happening all over the world. I'm not just referring to 🍉, it just one in a whole line up because we've learned nothing. Until we learn, more holocaust films will be made