You may not know where you are when the “zone of interest” kicks in, but this is by design. The Jonathan Glaser-directed new film, which has been garnering a lot of attention since its premiere on Friday night with a potential major win at the Cannes Film Festival, kicks off with an idyllic picnic by the lake. Families chat in German, hang out, take care of the children and sunbathe. And thanks to Glaser’s long, wide shots, we were able to settle in, too.
Eventually they return home, in a nice two-story house, where parents Rudolf (Kristian Friedel) and Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) sleep in separate beds. In the morning, their routine begins. The maid prepares breakfast, the children scatter, and Rudolf gets dressed for work. But it’s all shot in wide shots from such a distance that it might take a moment for Rudolph to realize this guy is wearing an SS uniform as soon as he walks into the forecourt. .
From there, you may learn more disturbing details. The walls around Hedwig’s garden are covered with barbed wire. Can you barely see the smoke-filled building on the other side? And when the kids are playing, do the faint sounds in the distance start to sound like gunshots, guard dogs, and screams?
This family’s lakeside life is nothing more than an idyllic pastoral with blindfolds — and you have to be blindfolded to live there — and it soon becomes clear that Rudolf is the Nazi commander. and the house Hedwig describes as her dream home is adjacent to Auschwitz.
“zone of interest” Adapted from a novel by Martin Amis, it will be Glazer’s first film in a decade. The British director has only three feature credits credited to him, but all of them are the raucous Sexy Beast (2001), Nicole Kidman’s stunning drama Verse (2004), and his sci-fi masterpiece Under the Skin. (2014) — He is so powerful that he has never felt so far away.
Still, Glazer has never had a mainstream breakthrough or won any major awards. And he’ll be interested to see if it makes it into The Zone of Interest, which will be distributed by A24 later this year. Winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes would certainly help, but Glazer’s direction should get a lot of attention. He constructs his family’s daily activities in still wide shots, cutting only when someone enters another room, making it appear as if the family themselves are under eerie surveillance.
The Cannes jury may also give Huller a grisly prize for playing the selfish Hedwig. With Jews being murdered next to her, she remembers her trip and asks her husband, “Can you take me to the spa in Italy again?” It’s all luxury. ’” Anything that happens beyond the walls of her gorgeous garden simply doesn’t exist or offers opportunities for mercenaries. She eagerly tries on the confiscated fur coat and tells Rudolf to look for more items stolen from the camp prisoners. “Chocolate when you see it,” she said. “Little goodies.”
And if the film resonates enough to be nominated for future awards, hopefully voters will take note of the carefully tuned sound design. There is stillness in the early stages, a kind of silence that can only be obtained especially when something is missing. After that, it becomes difficult to ignore the sounds wafting from the camp. Perhaps we were listening through Hedwig’s ears when “The Zone of Interest” began.
As we gathered after the premiere, the man sitting next to me confessed that he only understood 50 percent of the film. But I think the remaining 50 percent of him is meant to be felt. Despite Glazer’s formal accuracy, he leaves plenty of room for viewers to come to their own conclusions. Does family denial have modern parallels? How does the rhythm of work and life alleviate unimaginable fear? And what did you hear in the silence before you could hear the screams?
