The 2024 Oscar nominations were announced yesterday, and The Zone of Interest is up for five awards, including Best Picture. Director Jonathan Glazer used the announcement to remind viewers that the issues the film explores are still very much relevant today.
The Zone of Interest, based on the novel by Martin Amis, is an exploration of Rudolf Höss, the commandant of the Auschwitz death camp during the Holocaust. As Höss (Christian Friedel) and his family enjoy an idyllic life of parties, guests, and jaunts to the river in their bucolic home, they ignore the horrific sounds of genocide floating over the wall their home shares with the camp. While Rudolf and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) fight to stay in what they think is a beautiful home, other people around the camp do what they can to aid the Jews and other prisoners trapped inside.
What makes The Zone of Interest so compelling—and so important—is that it captures the apathy that makes atrocities like the Holocaust possible. Both Rudolf and Hedwig know what’s happening on the other side of the wall, but thanks to the dehumanization of the people in the camp, and the comfort the Hösses themselves enjoy, they’re able to justify it and put it out of mind. One of the most chilling aspects of the film is that the Höss family comes across not as evil monsters, but as average, petty people. Anyone, the movie tells us, is capable of horrific acts.
After the Oscar nominations were announced, Entertainment Weekly interviewed various nominees, and Glazer used his Best Director nomination to remind audiences of The Zone of Interest‘s message.
“The film is trying to ask questions about modern humanity and empathy,” Glazer said. “Whether there are people over our wall now, as a group, whose safety or freedom we care about less than our own.”
Is Glazer talking about any situation in particular? It’s hard to watch The Zone of Interest and not think of the ethnic cleansing of Gaza that Israel is committing right now. But there are so many other atrocities happening, too. The U.S. continues to militarize its border with Mexico, leading to the deaths of peaceful asylum seekers. Almost seven million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been displaced by violent militia groups, while Western nations continue to mine the country for gold, cobalt, and other valuable minerals.
The Zone of Interest isn’t just a harrowing study of one historical event. It’s a rallying cry to face the atrocities happening all around us.
(featured image: A24)
