Zone of Interest

ITS ABOUT TRUMPSTERS… Well, it is — but its also about me, and you, all of us. On some level well all do it. But the question is, should we and perhaps most practically, at what point do we acknowledge that doing it is just plain unacceptable. Rudy Hoss is in charge of making sure Auschwitz runs smoothly. He and his family live in the lush splendor of a garden home which shares a wall with the camp. The gardens flourish, the lawn lush and precise, the pool inviting; but the sounds from the camp haunt the film. We don’t see any of the horrors on the other side of the wall. Some have criticized the film for this, others consider it even more horrific as the sounds inspires images more authentic and terrifying in the viewers mind. I’m not sure. But its a choice and one that I found particularly effective. The sound functions for me as the return of the repressed. The more beautiful the gardens, the more frolicking bucolic merriment, the more haunting the sounds. While not subtle, its not overt. The film has gorgeous close ups of various flowers while later we see a forced laborer spreading ashes throughout the grounds. And if there was any doubt that perhaps the wife was not fully aware of what was happening, she shouts at a domestic servant (forced laborer), “I’ll have you turned to ash.” In the moment, it is simply a way for her to express her anger in manner consistent with he pitiless persona. But like the ash, and so many other small moments, it reinforces that they knew exactly what was happening on the other side of the wall. And while this film focuses on perhaps one of the most egregious examples of perpetrating a heinous evil while living a mindful life in sync with nature that takes time to smell the roses, it is happening all around us. Trump supporters can blithely ignore the insurrection, believing that even without democracy they will be able to live in their garden home. We regularly make choices that have serious repercussions. Few can live a perfect life and to put that expectation on oneself is probably unhealthy. But should we not also keep in mind the myth of the frog in a pot of water. The legend goes that one can slowly heat the water and the frog will acclimate until ultimately it gets boiled. At some point we must all draw a line and not drown out the sounds from the other side of the wall.

The mashup for this film hit me twice hard – one at the beginning of the film, the other at the end. So much of the film — what it chose to shoot, how it chose to shoot it felt like Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles so much so that I thought they could have called it Rudolph Hoss, 1Legionow Strasse, 666 Auschwitz. Near the end of the film there is a sequence that reminded me of the end of Taste of Cherry. While its not the same, it is a moment that breaks away from the narrative in an intense and incisive way, but again overt without being explicit.

And let me pat myself on the back for not bantering about the phrase ‘banality of evil’ to show that I too read an article about an article that quoted Hannah Arendt. Opps… Damn… So close… If I had just stopped typing.

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