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The war drama wins two Academy Awards. He sends out a dangerous message.
And suddenly everyone is talking about Sandra Hülser. The 45-year-old Thuringian, previously known to the general public from “Toni Erdmann”, was nominated for best actress at the Oscars for the legal thriller “Anatomy of a Case”. But her second current film is also causing a sensation: “Zone of Interest” won the Oscar for best international film. In it, Hülser plays Hedwig Höß, the wife of Commander in the Auschwitz concentration camp Rudolf Höß (played by Christian Friedel„Babylon Berlin“).
To be honest: “Zone of Interest” immediately gave me an uneasy feeling in the cinema. But unfortunately not (only) because of the heavy subject matter and the arthouse aesthetic atmosphere.
Sandra Hülser at the Oscars 2024. © Imago
“Zone of Interest” is literally about the “area of interest” of a Nazi couple
“Zone of Interest” shows an everyday world that is almost unbearable: the Höß couple and their five children live as a family in a large house and property – right next to the camp wall in Auschwitz. The family idyll is “only” disturbed by moans and screams on the concentration camp site, by arriving trains of deported people, by smoke from the chimney of the crematorium… But this only surprises those watching in the cinema; the characters hardly notice these impressions.
For him, it’s all just a normal job, which is primarily characterized by a logistical character when, during a party, he muses on the phone with his wife about the technical difficulty if everyone in the hall were to be gassed on site. There is an absurd parallelism between Rudolf Höß’s professional and private roles. Wife Hedwig is living her dream. It threatens to collapse when her husband is about to be transferred – and so she sends the commander alone to Oranienburg in the meantime so that she can stay there with the children…
Unfortunately, the effect of “The Zone of Interest” with Sandra Hülser on me is negative. © Imago / Landmark Media
The Oscar-winning film fails to emphasize what is important and to concentrate on the essentials
Sure, “Zone of Interest” is oppressive and well made. The film essentially works without dialogue or film music and draws its images in three “zones” – namely red, white and black, i.e. the colors of Nazi symbolism. Above all, the portrayal of the supposed bourgeoisie, the private banality and staidness of the perpetrators is successful.
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At the same time, that is exactly the problem. There is a feeling of normalization, humanization and sometimes almost indifference. This is never the intention of the film, but it is an unintended effect – at least for me. Fear, terror and the Auschwitz monster Höß as the perpetrator are partially pushed into the background. The film fails to achieve the simultaneity that is actually so important; the family construct is too much in the foreground. In addition, the film almost babbles along at times when we alternately see a long stairwell scene with Höß and – edited – Polish cleaners who are cleaning in what is now the Auschwitz Museum.
Unfortunately, the effect is sometimes fatal and the film criticism is far away from the normal audience
This is arthouse with the opposite effect. A film with a dangerous message that, in my opinion, doesn’t deserve an Oscar. I don’t want to imagine how this might affect parts of the audience (for example, particularly young ones) who see the film. Would you like an example from the comments section of film sites? “This film had no effect on me at all. What effect is this film supposed to have? You can watch a family go about their everyday life and nothing more happens.” This effect is fatal, as films or contemporary witnesses are so important against forgetting and for remembering.
The film critics themselves celebrate the film largely as a stripe between the banal and the vicious. For me, however, I still have an uneasy feeling.