The zone of interest

[SupremeCommanderServalan]

Anyone else seen it? It was an interesting watch, but I have a question re the plot and whether we ever found out what the letter from the mother said?

I though the concept was really clever but I would remove some of the scenes. I also agree that the Oranienburg was not as engaging, although I think the dialogue they have on the phone was really powerful and a good reminder of who Hoss was. However I feel that Glazer did not think viewers could be trusted with arriving at the right interpretation of what they were watching, so he put in this flower montage or the blank screens with haunting music at the beginning etc. These scenes felt out of place to me because the rest of the movie is so subtle.

I am also not sure what was the point of showing the girl leaving food for laborers and playing the music she found.

I will watch it once again, but I am also not 100% convinced by Christian Friedel acting. Sandra Huller on the other hand was amazing and I cannot understand how she wasn't nominated for supporting role in any award shows.

This article in the Guardian is really interesting and, among other fascinating details, gives background to the Polish girl sequences: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/10/jonathan-glazer-the-zone-of-interest-auschwitz-under-the-skin-interview

I saw it last night. Keep thinking about it, although annoyingly we were in back of cinema and even though I had my glasses in the subtitles disappeared quickly!
I also thought the actor portraying the wife was amazing. I hated her more than Rudolph, which is ridiculous.

Saw it today. Thought it was very well done. Not graphic, but absolutely chilling.

Just seen this tonight. Didn't enjoy it. Expected much more.

Saw this last night, really moving.

I think the children were absolutely affected by living there - the baby crying all the time, the little girl wandering around at night, the eldest locking his brother in the greenhouse and making kind of gas hissing noises. The little boy awake at night and acting out what he heard with his toys. Awful. Yet the mum didn't care/notice. Her focus was holding tight to her privileges against the backdrop of the superior power.

I thought the part in Oranienburg was excellent because it showed the absolute work-a-day banality of the whole thing (and the work 'jolly' of the party in the evening.)
The meeting of all the camp commandants, where they could have been discussing sales targets. It was interesting that this had to be their mindset. Even though Rudolph had been completely loyal (and evil, obviously), his position was still in doubt - there were the 'favoured' generals, shown by the favourite new kid on the block getting all the praise. So even if you carried out orders, you weren't sure of your place, or your life actually, that fear keeping everyone in check... Hence I think the retching at the end....he knew he wasn't safe even as he did these unspeakable things.

Really such an important film.

@commonground
A really interesting analysis - you've explained it so well.

I want to see this, but struggling with my mental health at the moment. The members of my grandfather's family who stayed in Poland were wiped out in the Holocaust.

@commonground my mum was saying that there is a book about the children of senior Nazi's and how it affected them. Apparently they were often terrified of being recognised, and they were also victims.

I watched this a few weeks ago and thought it was really interesting and obviously very disturbing and distressing. I agree with a previous poster, an important film.

I agree with a pp - I found myself hating Hedwig more than her evil husband. Probably as a result of her superior acting.

Just the cold, lumpen, casually cruel complacency of the woman. The very personification of ‘the banality of evil.’

I thought this too.
I thought it was magnificent film. Apparently the director had fixed cameras in the house so you see the family and staff going about their quite prosaic business. There was no film lighting, just daylight and regular electric light, so when Höss goes round turning off the lights, that's literally what happened.
The actress playing the wife found it a very disturbing role but she thought the script was magnificent and so she decided to take the part. The dog, who was fabulous, was her own dog.

It absolutely was the banality of evil. It's a film I'll go on thinking about for a long time: a masterpiece.

"I could have my husband spread your ashes across the fields of Babice." - shudder

Re the vomiting trope not being seen in real life, I seem to recall Oscar Pistorious vomiting during his trial when faced with the explicit consequences of his actions that night.

Just seen this
so awful
why did they keep the shoes?
a reminder of the atrocities.
very disturbing upsetting film.
at points during the film I wanted to say Make it stop
did not understand the apples

The young girl hiding the apples as food for the prisoners to find was a real person who fought against the Nazis for the Polish resistance. I think she and the others also smuggled letters in and out.

So the girl moving around at night wasn't from the same family. She was from another family and she was based on an actual girl who left food out as an act of resistance. There's an interview with the director, I'll try and find the link.

The same interview talks about the mother and how she didn't have any issue with the genocide. She just wasn't comfortable being so close to it.

Here it is screenrant.com/the-zone-of-interest-ending-explained/

What happened in the river? Was it ashes from the crematoria? Was that an accident or the normal method of disposal? Was the housemaid a local or prisoner?

I thought the wife trying on the lipstick was so disturbing. And I found myself sucked into admiring the garden. I think the grandmother was irritated by the noise as an inconvenience, remember the neighbour's curtains comment.

Saw the real house last week

@Neveralonewithaclone yes I think it was ashes and I understood the housemaid to be a local.

It was strange how the grandmother suddenly got some scruples and ran off. Initially she seemed v impressed by it all (apart from the noise). I would have liked to see more of her transition.

The women who worked in the house were all Jewish. That's why they looked so scared all the time.

I don't think it was ashes in the river - it was zyklon B residue from the gas chambers which was toxic - hence the father rushing to get his kids out of the water / bathed

I think the grandmother left just after the children needed bathed. I'm going to watch it again now.

I didn’t see if very well but I thought he was holding something in his hand. I googled it and read that he found a skull in the river.