The Zone of Interest: Powerful statement on the Holocaust

THE ZONE OF INTEREST (M)

Director: Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast)

Starring: Sandra Huller, Christian Friedel.

Rating: *****

See no evil. Feel all evil.

In The Zone of Interest, a family finds their dream home at one of the most nightmarish addresses imaginable: the Auschwitz concentration camp.

It was here in Poland, at the height of World War II, that Nazi Germany designed and executed a plan to exterminate as many Jews as possible on a daily basis.

This infamous place, lest we ever forget, was the eye of a storm of systematic killing that came to be known as the Holocaust.

Despite never once venturing inside the grounds of Auschwitz itself, The Zone of Interest is destined to be regarded as one of the most powerful, provocative and lastingly eloquent statements on the Holocaust to ever grace a cinema.

The movie opens in 1943, with Rudolf Hoss (Christian Friedel), his wife Hedwig (Anatomy of a Fall’s Sandra Huller) and their five children already sedately settled in to their immaculately designed new property.

As the incumbent commandant at Auschwitz, Rudolf has been gifted a striking parcel of land and a stunningly elegant house. He and Hedwig waste no time in crafting the estate into a modernist paradise, complete with lush green lawns, tastefully positioned fauna and a swimming pool.

With just a single wall separating the Hoss estate from the barbed wire, rotting barracks and smoking chimney stacks next door, it only takes a handful of scenes for an audience to process exactly what they are looking at.

This is what is like to live in a Garden of Eden located at the Gates of Hell.

As The Zone of Interest progresses, viewers are tasked with sorting through every last mundane detail of the Hoss family’s chillingly oblivious lifestyle.

Hedwig casually asks Rudolf if her can pick her up a few things while he’s at work.

“Chocolate, if you see it,” she says. “Any goodies.”

Rudolf later returns with a fur coat, and Hedwig cannot wait to rush upstairs and try it on.

The movie doesn’t have to point out where the garment came from, or who might have worn it. All of this information – and the dreadful truth lodged within – is communicated instantly.

While an astonishing sound design plays a key part in conveying a constant proximity to unthinkable evil, a compelling visual design (much of the movie was filmed with hidden cameras, lending an unworldly air to the performances) guarantees our complete attention.

The lasting miracle of The Zone of Interest is how it keeps audience grounded in the reality of a mass tragedy it never once directly shows us.

The point being made here may not be new, but it bears repeating: what we choose not to see ultimately becomes what we choose not to feel. Nothing good can follow after that choice is made.

The Zone of Interest is now showing in selected cinemas

DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS (MA15+)

Rating: ***

General release

Many fans were saddened when they heard those much-lauded Coen brothers, Ethan and Joel (No Country for Old Men, Fargo), would no longer make movies together. While Joel’s first solo offering as a director (Denzel Washington’s The Tragedy of Macbeth) hardly set the world the world on fire, it also seems unlikely Ethan’s debut will defy that trend. Which is not say Drive-Away Dolls is in any way a substandard movie. In fact, it is a short, sharp, sweet and solidly constructed chase caper which has some great lines, a handful of diverting stand-alone scenes and two excellent lead performances to the fore. However, a feeling never quite subsides that this affair might be both a little too in-jokey and way too out-there for mainstream audiences.

A well-paired Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan play Jamie and Marian, best-ish friends who have unwittingly hired a car with a trunkful of illicit bounty. Though mention cannot be made of the exact contents here, it is the kind of stuff that attracts a squad of bad guys while the ladies happily road-trip it down to Florida. A quality support cast includes Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal and Beanie Feldstein.

THIS IS ME NOW …: A LOVE STORY (PG)

Rating: ***

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Yes, Jennifer Lopez has a new album out, and a la Beyonce’s Lemonade, this cinematic rendition of the track-list is intended to be both the perfect companion piece and easy selling point. However, to her credit and our surprise, J. Lo has delivered something a little extra: a wacky, chaotic, revealing and strangely touching combo of autobiography and self-analysis that demands a viewer sit up and take notice.

For the most part, even the most fleeting of Lopez fans will obey that directive, even if only because the songs are so strong and the mood swings dominating the non-musical sequences are utterly unpredictable. There is a stack of familiar faces coming and going throughout, none more so than Lopez’s once-long-lost love (and current husband) Ben Affleck.

Originally published as Why The Zone of Interest is a powerful and lastingly eloquent statement on the Holocaust