Zona De — Interes

Rudolf Höss is not portrayed as a monster. He is portrayed as a stressed-out middle manager. He worries about budget reports, staff shortages, and bureaucratic efficiency. He bathes his children, kisses his wife goodnight, and then designs better ways to murder 10,000 people by morning.

Then, you hear it.

★★★★½ Not for the faint of heart, but essential for the awake. Have you seen The Zone of Interest? How did the sound design affect your viewing experience? Share your thoughts below. Zona de Interes

Glazer is asking a question that transcends history: What is the wall inside our own minds that allows us to enjoy our comfort while knowing that others are suffering to provide it?

Using a state-of-the-art sound design, the film traps you inside the family’s cognitive dissonance. The constant, low-industrial hum of genocide becomes background noise—literally. Just as the Höss family learns to ignore the screams to enjoy their coffee, the audience learns to listen for the human suffering beneath the birdsong. The most terrifying aspect of Zona de Interes is not the cruelty, but the normality . Rudolf Höss is not portrayed as a monster

The distant rumble of furnaces. The sharp crack of rifle fire. A guttural scream swallowed by the wind.

This is the radical, horrifying genius of Jonathan Glazer’s 2023 masterpiece. It is not a film about the Holocaust. It is a film about the gardeners of the Holocaust. The film follows the real-life family of Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz. Their villa—the "Zone of Interest"—shares a wall with the concentration camp. While millions are burned on the other side of that brick barrier, Mrs. Höss (Sandra Hüller) tests perfumes, designs new curtains, and brags to her mother about the "good life" the war has given them. He bathes his children, kisses his wife goodnight,

At first glance, Zona de Interes (The Zone of Interest) feels like a mistake. The camera lingers on a glowing garden, a sparkling swimming pool, and children playing on a swing set. The sun is warm. The flowers are in full bloom. It looks like a reality TV show about a perfect, upper-middle-class family.

Glazer refuses to show you the horror inside the camp. You never see a single corpse in close-up. Instead, the horror is .