Why The Zone of Interest Does Not Let You See

A look at how The Zone of Interest uses off-screen space and sound design in one of the most hauntingly powerful ways I've ever seen in a film. Featuring an interview with Johnnie Burn, sound designer who just won an Oscar for his work on this film.

This video is spoiler free, so if you haven't seen the movie you, this video will be a good introduction to what's unique about it, and why it's a significant achievement from a filmmaking perspective. If you have seen it, I hope this video gives you some extra insight into the unique craft and attention that went into this film.

References:
-"Theory of Film Practice" p. 17 by Noël Burch
-"Thinking beyond the frame" by Sharon McDonagh

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[blueegg]

“Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel, or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims, this dehumanization, how do we resist?” ~ Jonathan Glazer

[FreakieFan]

One of the most unsettling aspects from this film as an audience member that after an hour or so I started to (unintentionally) ignore or not hear the soundscape anymore because it was so persistent and droning, so I started to filter it out of my perception as a viewer.
Near the end I started to notice it again, and I realized exactly why it is possible for the camp commander and his wife to keep on living their lives as they do, because for them it's the same. They don't hear it anymore and are desensitized to the sound, just like I was as a viewer after only an hour or so. That confrontational realization was quite shocking.

[mael]

I am German and in my 40s. The weirdest thing happend while watching the zone of interest: vivid memories of my east German grandmothers house appeared. I could actually smell her house, I remembered the sound of her wooden staircase, the furniture and other details. This is how real this movie sounds.
Thanx for this extraordinary essay!

[cinerina]

I was so glad they won the Oscar for sound and still I am blown away by this work.

[francisfrain]

I watched this movie in cinemas and it's probably one of the most disturbing non graphic movies out there. The fact that it made me feel so uncomfortable without showing a single moment of violence is incredible.Truly a masterpiece.

[TomFinsterMusic]

at 4:00 minutes the scene is already disturbing before the gun shot. The coat she tries on is the clothes of a prisoner - hinting at the wealthy life that some of them had before. That's why she also finds a ring in it and just puts it aside like it's not a bit deal. She knows its all "leftovers".

[plukmens]

This film was an absolutely excruciating watch—and I mean that in the best way possible. More than once, I was almost feeling bored with the mundane life of the Höss family, only for the sounds to jerk me back into the terrifying reality of what was actually happening. Such an effective way to portray the "banality of evil"; an absolute masterpiece.

I feel like Glazer's speech at the Oscars and the subsequent reactions to it only make the point of the film so much more poignant. We'll just ignore the very real atrocities around us if we don't want to care.

[FlyLikeDove]

I noticed even the dog had his own Zone of Interest... he just happily walked around and didn't bark at anything - not at screams, gunshots, random yelling, baby crying - he did whatever he wanted all day (with little to no consequences). But when the dogs were barking at prisoners over the wall, he went crazy.

[Spearca]

That shot of the unseen train's arrival is amazing.

[qrefrain]

This movie was one of the most terrifying movies I saw last year, not because of how horrible Nazi Germany was but because I saw myself and so many “good, regular” people in the Höss family. We all swore the Holocaust would never happen again but I could easily see a future where the whole world lives just like the Höss again. As you mentioned in the video, by having the audience experience the filtering out of the droning background noise, it makes us realize how easy it is start ignoring the suffering. It’s so much more effective than showing or telling us shocking images.

[Duskets]

I was curious why the scenes featuring the young Polish girl smuggling food to the detainees was shot with a night vision filter, but after ruminating on it a bit, I think Glazer is trying to depict a light of benevolence shining in the darkness of this atrocity. That her actions, even when done covertly and under the cover of darkness, was so commendable and heroic that it broke from the fly on the wall perspective of the film and deserved to be celebrated.

[axnyslie]

The ambient sounds of the camp made me think back to the film Boyz n the Hood. Throughout the film there is a constant presence of police helicopters flying overhead out of camera. Director John Singleton said this was actually unintentional the helicopter sounds were just constant as they were filming in south-central LA. So it became part of the story.

[riskriskmks]

The woman trying on the coat was the most disturbing to me because it focused in on the experience of the one woman who was the original owner of the coat, and her happy, comfortable life. I always thought she must have worn the coat to the camps both for warmth and to preserve it. Then it was taken from her. When did she last use that lipstick? What happy place was she going? I imagined her still alive, but on the other side of the wall, her life totally changed while someone else was enjoying her tings. Horrifying. It made it personal.

[theboringkaren]

I'm so glad you covered this film! I remember I kept thinking, "Why don't they ever react to the smell?" because the film, as you said, caused me to think about the historical elements. And then Hedwig's mother arrives and acts as the outside observer, reacting to everything the Hoss family tunes out. Also, seeing the smoke from the train punched me in the gut.

[theapocalyvid]

One aspect of the film which really resounded to me was how it ends up showing the banality of the Höss family's life. It is horrific in its depiction of regimented banality and fascist domesticity. There is fundamentally nothing of important happening within this family's life. The mother Hedwig cares for the household along with her help, the children are as playful and disciplined as their age, and the father Rudolf maintains respect in the home that he seeks in his workplace. However, with the terrifying reality of mass violence next door, I myself started to read more deeply into the actions and mindsets of these otherwise typical people as part of their oppressive national identity. Hedwig, exacerbated by her husband's transfer away, threatens her maid with being turned into ashes by her husband and spread among the countryside. Their teenage son Claus, dressed in a stormtrooper cosplay, cruelly locks his younger brother in their greenhouse as smoke rises above his head. While his kin live their lives downstairs, Rudolf uses the home office to discuss incineration chamber designs of the complex he oversees. With the historic suffering occurring literally within earshot of this family, the actions of the Hösses are simultaneously important and unimportant. The terror in the camps dwarfs any actions Rudolf takes in his domestic life, yet his professional despotism doesn't disappear when the dinner bell chimes. The atrocities he commits are unconscionable, yet in the Nazi state, the unconscionable can find a home.

[diethermanicat]

Most student filmmakers should watch this since they prioritize cinematography more than the sound.

[alwayswatching]

“Where in our lives are we like the hoss family?” Well said

I think what made this movie so terrifying was how normal this family seemed.

They were so consumed with their own lives and making their dreams come true by having this perfect house and all these beautiful things. Everything outside of them was background noise.

[mayankjha]

What an amazing year for Sandra Hüller, starrer in two of the best films of this year.

[pageturner]

the way they “harvested” sounds is kind of terrifying but so effective

[kraeutrpolizei]

As a German speaker i just realised that Film 2 is a slightly different experience than the film with subtitles. A lot of the camp talk wasn’t intelligible for me (might be my bad hearing though). So the message was a lot more visceral than what you get through subtitles. Like, people getting drowned only happens through the consequence of them fining bones in the river. With the subs it’s a lot clearer who is responsible.
You mentioned that as a viewer the background noise gets drowned out, I had the same experience. This would not be possible if every shot had a subtitle, like BANG. I feel like in this films the subs change the viewing experience a lot more than with other films. Of course i have to watch the film with subs again, maybe it’s not as dramatic as I imagine