It is those that carry humanity’s future we should focus on.
The Big Picture
- The innocence of children in
The Zone of Interest
reveals the extremes of human nature – good and evil, prompting introspection. - Director Jonathan Glazer uses children to showcase the potential future of humanity in the face of atrocities, allowing for hope and change.
- Characters like the young girl and Klaus present stark contrasts, emphasizing the choice between bravery and turning away from evil.
The Zone of Interest might be one of the most disturbing revisitations of the Holocaust ever put to screen. The haunting sounds of atrocities being committed off-screen whilst the happy Höss family goes about their picturesque lives sticks with the viewer long after watching. However, whilst it is Christian Friedel’s Rudolf Höss that leads the film, and Sandra Hüller’s Hedwig that steals the show, it is the children within The Zone of Interest that provide the greatest intrigue.
Director Jonathan Glazer has said that The Zone of Interest is about now, not the past. From the unnamed Polish girl, to the older Höss son, Klaus (Johann Karthaus), and the youngest Höss, Hans (Luis Noah Witte), each child in The Zone of Interest, is a reflection of human nature. The good, the bad, and the side of us that fears confronting the evil we see before us. It is in these children we see Glazer explore the potential future of humanity.
The Zone of Interest
The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.
- Release Date
- December 15, 2023
- Director
- Jonathan Glazer
- Cast
- Sandra Hüller , Christian Friedel , Freya Kreutzkam , Max Beck
- Runtime
- 105 minutes
- Main Genre
- Drama
- Writers
- Martin Amis , Jonathan Glazer
- Studio
- A24
The Good and The Bad in ‘The Zone of Interest’ Is a Reflection of Humanity
During a few scenes in The Zone of Interest, we see a young, unnamed, girl planting food for prisoners of Auschwitz in the night. The infrared, eerie scenes are punctuated with some of the only music heard throughout The Zone of Interest – a low ominous rumbling. These scenic choices of Glazer highlight the danger this young girl is in and the bravery she is showing by doing this charitable act. This character is inspired by Aleksandra Bystron-Kolodziejczyk, to who Glazer dedicated his Oscar win. Aleksandra was a young resistance fighter who did the same as this young girl and Glazer admits that she is “the force for good”, as the infrared lighting literally makes her glow in the dark as Glazer intended. Audiences do not know why she is doing the good she is doing, they just know that what she is doing is good. They do not ask if she has someone she knows in the camp or if she is part of a larger resistance. All that matters is her nature is good. This unnamed girl starkly juxtaposes the banal attitude adults like Hedwig and Rudolf take towards the Holocaust, as her fruit is for those that suffer, whereas the fruit from Hedwig’s garden is just for the Höss family.
On the other hand, you have Klaus Höss, a bully to his younger brother, who is seen inspecting the teeth that have been pulled from the mouths of Auschwitz prisoners. Audiences are shown a boy who is fascinated by the suffering of others. The fact it is one of the few times we are physically shown what is being done to prisoners within Auschwitz highlights that we should be taking note of what this boy is doing. The literal walls that Rudolf Höss put up to separate his family from the crimes he was committing are metaphorically crumbling and Klaus is not horrified. Once again, like the young Polish girl, audiences are not told why Klaus is doing this. They can obviously assume that, like his father, he holds Nazi values but, at the same time, Rudolf hides the more brutal aspects of this world from his children and audiences are left unaware of how Klaus would have even gotten these teeth.
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In these unexplained motivations and backstories, audiences can see Glazer’s point. These children’s actions are influenced not by their origins, but by their nature and their response to their current environment. These two children represent the good and the evil within everyone. From selflessly sneaking apples to prisoners to inspecting human teeth, it is in these actions that Glazer presents us with the two extremes of humanity and makes us wonder what side we may fall on.
The Most Intriguing Moment In ‘The Zone of Interest’ Is a Subtle Nudge at Introspection
During the film, Hans, only six years old, hears a commotion outside his window. It is revealed that a prisoner was fighting over an apple, perhaps a commentary on how no good deed goes unpunished. When Rudolf Höss casually orders the prisoner to be drowned, Hans turns away from the window and whispers, “Don’t do that again”. It is a disturbing moment that can be interpreted differently. It could be said Hans was simply telling the prisoner to obey and, therefore, possesses the same nature as Klaus or Rudolf. Yet, it could also be interpreted as Hans telling himself not to look out the window again. In this, Jonathan Glazer presents us with the most common aspect of human nature. Not to be brave or evil, but to simply turn away from the evils occurring.
What is most intriguing is that the characters that Glazer uses to present humanity’s possible future are children, the literal future of humanity. With the youngest child who does not want to look at the horrors outside his window, Glazer presents this weakness as understandable. He is not lecturing the audience on how they need to be better, he presents the issue in a way that it can be solved. That young boy could grow up to be better. In this same way, so can the older son, Klaus, before he does anything unforgivable. In line with that, could the unnamed Polish girl lose her way too? Even Rudolf Höss retches at the end of The Zone of Interest as the crushing weight of what he is doing begins to sink in. Maybe Höss could change yet. When one is so stuck in their ways, that change would be painful if not sickening to their original nature. That is why Rudolf continues on after retching. For him, it is too late, his sins are committed and cannot be forgiven. But the children of tomorrow still have a chance and that makes them the most intriguing characters of all.
Glazer shows the viewers that things can change and that, at the end of the day, it is in the audience’s own ability to choose what side of human nature they want to represent and that is a choice that is not made once and then set in stone. If audiences are to fully understand Glazer’s intention in The Zone of Interest, then it is the characters that carry humanity’s future, the children, that audiences must pay the most attention to.
The Zone of Interest is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
This article was originally published on collider.com