One of the most subversive films of the 2020s has to be Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest. The film takes place in 1943 in Poland, just outside of Auschwitz, but is never directly about the Holocaust. Instead, the focus is on SS officer Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedely) and his family. Rudolf Höss had a large home just outside Auschwitz where he lived a normal family life with his wife, child and dog. Auschwitz and its horrors can thus only act as a backdrop to Rudolf Höss's family idyll.
Scenes alternate/contrast widely. In one scene Rudolf Höss approves a new incinerator and in a later one he reads fairy tales to his children (ironically/macabre enough one about Hansel and Gretel). In another scene, Hedwig Höss (Sandra Hüller) is out tending the garden while a column of smoke rises from Auschwitz in the background. The sound also plays a big role in the film. Family scenes are mixed with soldier sounds, muffled screams and gunshots. This acts as a constant reminder that something dark is going on just a stone's throw away.
In one of the final scenes, we are suddenly thrown into a holocaust museum where some cleaners are diligently vacuuming the various rooms. At the same time, the camera pans over prison clothes from the extermination camp and a mountain of shoes from executed Jews. Perhaps it is meant as a parallel to the blindness/indifference or normalization that occurs when you are constantly exposed to something, as horrible as it is The Zone of Interest is an incredibly powerful film and its message/theme will be rediscovered by generations for a long time Forward. The depiction of the everyday life of Nazism behind the uniform is a unique take and much creepier than any yelling camp guard.
