The Zone of Interest is a German-language film directed by Jonathan Glazer. It’s nominated for Best Picture.1 I bet it’s one you haven’t seen yet, unless you’re a completionist. Not just because it’s in German. Not even mainly because it’s in German. The Zone of Interest is a Holocaust movie, so it belongs to that camp of films that we feel like we should watch, but we almost never get around to because we know they’re going to be awful and, well, *gestures wildly at everything*.
You’re not wrong. The Zone of Interest is horrifying. But not in the way you probably expect. It’s a beautiful, terrible film. It’s an important film for our moment because it does something no other Holocaust film has ever done.
The Zone of Interest is a Holocaust film that doesn’t show us the Holocaust.
I know what you’re thinking. “Is it wise to make such a film in a day of actual Nazis and rampant Holocaust deniers? Isn’t it anti-Semitic to make a film about the Holocaust and hide the actual violence?”
But by keeping the violence of the Holocaust out of view, Glazer forces us to confront the people who enacted it. He warns us that they’re much more like us than we're comfortable admitting.
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