The family dog and the baby were always anxious throughout the whole film. Pacing around, whining, crying. Yes, it added to the tension in the film. But the dog and baby were the household's most innocent, impressionable characters. They sensed something wasn't "right" in the environment they were in, and expressed it freely through primitive behaviour (barking, whining, crying, etc.)

The girl placing the apples is a true story. Jonathan Glazer met the 90 year old Polish woman before she passed away. A beautiful sub-plot of humanity.

That bit with the Polish girl while Hoss is reading Hansel and Gretel… so haunting

Hedwig trying on a victim's mink and lipstick was the most horrifying moment. I wonder what was in the note left for her too.

I watched this film last night. It was phenomenal but also the most uncomfortable film I've watched in a long time. How the sound tells a different story from what we're witnessing on screen is just stunning. I will be thinking about this for a long time.

I interpreted the flash forward scene as a moment of how only after these tragedies happen is when we give them proper treatment, while during the time it happens we just focus internally.

the constant brown clouds that you see is the most horrifying thing in this movie for me.

What stuck with me is the sound design. I can literally close my eyes in parts and listen to the reality just beyond their walls. Chilling.

The wife refusing to leave the house when Hoess got transferred was the moment that upset me the most. The lipstick and the mink coat was bad but the house being so important to her showcased her acceptance of the death happening in her backyard.

The river scene is something that will truly haunt me for years to come.

This is the sort of film that causes me to reconsider how I throw 'masterpiece' around. They don't come around much and this is certainly one.

I just saw this movie, and there was a particular scene that really overwhelmed me. It’s the scene with the close-ups of the flowers, with the screaming in the background increasing in volume. Then the screen slowly fades into blood red as the sound suddenly cuts out completely. We wait there for a few seconds before those synthesized foghorns come in, letting off a couple of stomach-churning blasts… before it just smash-cuts back to the main character casually eyeing his garden. I swear to God I dragged my hands down my face and was on the verge of crying. I can’t even explain what it was, but what an incredibly haunting moment.

god i loved how this movie presented a completely different perspective than anything i've seen before. this is real story telling, peak cinema.

The 3 minute intro of black screen and music with a confused vibe, was like a descent into another reality. This was definitely one of the clever ways to pull the audience in, especially when the plot is so thin, it feels like were taken back in time, or watching a museum play out.

It's the small moments, like the discussion of the curtains and the woman her mom used to clean for, that have stuck with me since seeing this. I love that the Oscars recognized it.

Thank you for suggesting the infrared scenes are that way to create good-in-the-dark vs. evil-in-the-light inversion of the daylight scenes in the garden. I wondered why the filmmaker chose to do that. Your theory is very plausible.

“There’s no period sheen or glorification of its aesthetics” absolutely hits the nail on the head.

The family represent us. Not something we might do in the future under certain extreme circumstances, but what we are all doing right now, every day of the year. We all watch the news and see starving children, wartorn countries etc but we do nothing about it. We carry on living our prosperous lives, tending to our gardens, shopping for coats and lipstick. Hedwig and Hoss are us. We don't think we are monsters and neither did they. That's the point.

Didn't take me more than 3mins to conclude this was a masterpiece. It's one of the most gut wrenching experiences I've ever seen. One of the reasons for its horror is the stunning beauty of the daily scenes. Beautiful colours and aesthetics. Just ordinary people living their lives right next to industrial horror. This film will be with me forever. And one of the most impressive aspects is that TZOI manages to erase time. Removes the distance between us and those unspeakable acts and ask us how far we really are from the Holocaust, both ethically, morally and practically. No other holocaust movie has ever asked us to our face if we're really at a safe distance or if there even is such a thing. ❤

The gradual revealing of the camp and horror was masterful.

I am American - I saw this today in Leipzig, Germany where Sandra Hüller actually lives. The theater was pretty full, mostly people around 60-70 years old. Afterwards I desperately wanted to ask the audience members what they thought of the film. What an unforgettable film. Everyone should see it but I doubt most people will take the time to do so.

Sandra huller should have gotten a best supporting actress nomination.

This movie is not a drama. It's a horror. One of the best ever made

That was a terific review! The best I've seen. Bravo. My wife and I saw it over the weekend and were blown away. I agree - it's a masterpiece and one of my favorite movies I've seen in a long time. BTW, the scenes with the Polish girl leaving fruit for the prisoners to aren't shot in night vision - they're shot as negatives, as if the Polish girl is the opposite/reverse of the daughter.

Glazer is the man. THE man!

Although you mentioned it briefly, I think there are very accurate comparisons to how we treat animals we domesticate for food today. Most people want to remain ignorant of where their food comes from and how it makes it onto their grill. They just want to laugh and party while eating their steak, hot dogs, and burgers. I talk about this in our review of the movie.

this distilled so many thoughts i had floating around in my brain but didn't quite have the words to accurately communicate. thank god for media literacy, this analysis was great

A great companion piece for The Zone of Interest is 1981's My Dinner With Andre. My Dinner With Andre tackles the same themes in a more immediate fashion, whereas The Zone of Interest seems to be a portrait/meditative piece on its themes. Both films make the same argument effectively, but in different ways. Definitely check out My Dinner With Andre if you haven't.. its fascinating

Her baby crying in multiple scenes may indicate that she is so used to people screaming and crying for help in the camp that she can easily sleep through her own child's cries

Im 71. I thought for years that if I learned enough about the Holocaust, I'd understand it. I still don't understand it. Excellent video. Thank you for a job well done. ❤

“The Act of Killing-esque” YESS that’s exactly what I thought when I first saw that scene

The sanitization and cleaning throughout the movie really stood out to me from the get-go. It was always in the context of wanting to rid themselves of something reminding them of wrongdoings. The blood on the boots, the ashes in the river and in the nose, the fur coat that she wanted cleaned and repaired and the lipstick on her skin, his pe*** after he slept w the woman in his office,... Always pushing the smallest detail out of (mind's) eye that could confront them with the horrific acts, never wanting anything reminding them. And then we see the cleaners in modern day Auschwitz. The place felt cared for. For the first time in the movie cleaning didn't feel like something to me that's meant to get rid of something but to care for a place that enables more people to remind themselves of those horrific acts. Never forget, never again.

Great analysis. I loved the camera work (reality show/doco style) in this and the use of sound. Very effective and nudged the subconscious. I also found the camera work very Kubrick like which I loved.

I think your commentary starting at 7:39 is... I don't know. It doesn't sit well with me. Having been to Auschwitz, those "walls between us and the artifacts" are there to preserve said artifacts, and to preserve a history that many people chose not to believe happened. Those artifacts would crumble and be forgotten if there were no walls between us and them. It's not there to make "the experience more comfortable to participate in" (7:46). It's so it can be preserved and, most importantly, not forgotten. The rooms that those artifacts are in are designed to do exactly that, NOT for the "comfort" of those visiting, because believe me, absolutely no moment being on those grounds was comfortable. That being said, I do very much think you're spot on with your commentary about the Polish girl being the only bright spot while hiding apples in the dirt for the workers, and her home compared to the Höss' home (starting at 9:49). For the case of the Polish family "hiding" (10:23), you can hear a man during that scene after she returns home, and he is speaking Yiddish, which was a language used BY Jewish people before the Holocaust. We never see the man, but it leads me to believe that Glazer meant for us to interpret that they were, at the very least, sympathetic towards Jews. There were also many, MANY non-Jewish Pols who were killed at Auschwitz. The shot of Auschwitz towards the end, with the long hallway full of photos of prisoners, is filled with non-Jewish Pols. (edited for spelling errors and general sentence structure)

Really liked your analysis and when you mentioned the note from the mother I think you could have gone further: she didn’t just “throw it away” but burnt it in the furnace they had in their house in the corner of the room (other furnaces are discussed in the film). This is the furnace that also provides the central heating she was at pains to pint out because of the very cold winters - so it all wraps in to your theme and expands on it.

I just finished watching it in a theater and so glad I didn't just rent it at home. Make me feel super uneasy

Well I just wanted to say it is truly a pleasure to follow this channel. It’s inspiring to see young people like me appreciating films such as this one and wanting to discuss them! And you were a big part of why I started enjoying them in the first place so thank you ;)

One of the best reviews I have EVER listened to. I just got out of the movie theatre where I saw the movie. This review made me appreciate twice as more.

This is by far the best review I've read. I watched at least 7 different reviews here on KZfaq and this one could explain in detail what the director wanted us to feel and think. 👏 thank you for writing a great review for an amazing, unique movie.

Glazer explicitly confirmed your interpretation of his intentions at the Oscars. What a great analysis. Well done.

Turning the lights on and off was giving me Jeanne Dielman vibes

Thank you for acknowledging the atrocity that is factory farming. MASS suffering, torture, and slaughter, yet everyone turns a blind eye.

This is quite honestly one of the best and most thoughtful reviews of a film I've ever watched. It really got to me when you touched on how evil happens in the light and goodness under the cover of darkness.

Christian Friedel and Sandra Huller gave incredible and VERY disturbing performances. Two scenes that stuck with me: The one where the wife casually threatens the girl, telling her that she could have her husband cremate her; and the one where Hess is talking with his wife on the phone and says that he was thinking of how he could gas the attendants of the party. The idea that they were so casual and indifferent to the genocide they were committing wqs so off-putting.

What made it so gut wrenching for me was that this movie had almost zero close ups and the camp always looms large as a groaning monster just outside their garden.

The fact that these things are still happening in the 21st century is horrible..

Just walked out of the theatre and sat down with a beer by myself. This movie absolutely just numbed me. That ending scene, it’s was like Hoss was looking into the future, at how these crimes would be remembered. He borked but nothing came out, he had nothing inside him, not emotionally or mentally. Completely devoid of humanity. Very good film

Further emphasizing the film's message are comments from viewers- more inclined to describe how the movie made them feel, rather than what it made them think. While there is plenty in The Zone of Interest to gauge our emotions, and great films often do evoke strong feelings,, this film also offers ideas and concepts to feed the intellect and challenge the mind. I've been disappointed by the many remarks from people expressing how this movie sounds "too disturbing" to sit through, even though it purposely avoids displaying any violent images. These same people, who strongly favor teaching the truth about slavery and Native American genocide to kids in US schools can't risk exposing their own fragile sensitivities to this historical masterwork of a film, and are emblematic of the greater problem. Because it's much more convenient to avoid that which has the potential to make us 'feel bad,' and credit that choice on our propensity to feel 'too much.' Our capacity to feel and be humanly affected is meaningless if it only serves to justify our excuses for looking away. And if it can happen with a film, it certainly can be done to those suffering and oppressed right outside our own front doors.

Excellent interpretation! For me personally, I believe this film is about how evil’s goal is not to convince the masses to do its bidding and thereby sway them into adopting its way of thinking, but to numb and desensitize them to its actions. Evil ultimately knows that it cannot take hold of everyone, so it strives to be passively accepted as a way of life by the majority of people. That being said, your interpretation is completely valid, and can absolutely be argued effectively.

Great analysis. I thought the modern day shots were communicating pretty strongly that it just doesn't seem possible to repair a history like this. We want to remember it, but there is no way to do that without irony. That's why the cleaning crew is featured in my opinion.

Watched the film last night and loved your analysis. You articulated a lot of things I was only vaguely feeling but not able to put my finger on. I love how you said the night vision scenes show the girl as a light in the darkness, while the Hoss home is suffused with sunlight that can’t hide the decay of their souls

This is the best review of this movie I've seen and I am recommending it to everyone. This analysis captures the tone, the mood, the nuance, and the application of the message to us in our time.

This analysis is so spot on

This film is incredible because of how the film makes you really think. The family acts happily despite the heinous acts that’s happening next to them. Rudolph Hoss acting like a normal family man despite the job he does. The ending reminding the audience with the reality we live in. It also makes you ask the question “How can people live with themselves knowing people are literally dying next to them?” This is a film that will stick with people for a long time and it’s a reminder of what the past has taught us.

I got a different vibe from the theme of the people cleaning. Like the cleaning going on through most of the movie had a sense of fear, of shame, of denial. But the people cleaning at the end of the movie had none of that. They were relaxed while clearly maintaining the place out of a dedication to truth - and as such, they carried themselves in a noticeably different way to anyone else in the film.

The ending really hit me hard because ive been to both holocost museums in los angeles and dc and i remember the shoes and ehen i saw the chamber being swept out i immediately made the connection to how the simple act of sweeping is supposed to represent the chambers being sweep clean of ash like they would be at the end of an oven cycle, almost as if to say its the end of our cycle throught movie and story.

The images of the beautiful vegetable & flower crops in the gardens, that had been fertilised by the ashes of the people killed next door, was brilliant & grotesque.

My Mom was 12 years old when this took place. She was told by teachers and others NOT to ask questions. She was sent to the country side when bombing took place in the city. My Mom said my grand father was threatened plenty of times to be thrown in concentration camps for voicing his opinion! Germans were told to shut your mouth! It’s horrible what happened. My Mom had a friend who she played with and when she went upstairs for dinner and bedtime. The friend and family were gone in the morning, door wide open. Horrible happenings! War is NO good for anyone!

Watched this movie yesterday. I think its a movie everyone needs to watch.

Ash was a big character in the film. I felt like ash was always present in the background. The wrenching on the stairwell after the decadent party felt like it symbolized his own disgust with himself and his small moment of self reflection. He also seemed awkward around the rest of the party goers like he’s being used to carry out this mass murder.

This is good stuff, appreciate your thoughts especially on the ideas of distance and the lighting contributing to that Polish girl's story.

Ooph. I had so many reactionary thoughts as I was watching this but you squashed them as soon as as I had them. Great analysis. Not sure I’ve ever seen your page but definitely subscribed after this.

I cannot wait to watch it on Max. It's going to be a feast for my eyes. With no film being used, the movie manages to look old and modern at the same time.

Great movie. Extremely clinical, cold, and oppressive. Several scenes and shots still stick with me over three weeks later. Bare minimum it should win Best Foreign Film & Best Sound. I'm hoping it'll win Best Picture. Edit: YAY!!! it one Best Sound and Best Foreign Film.

I thought him cutting the lights off/checking the doors in his home at night was what all of us guys do at home, more or less. I like the thoughts interpreted in this video; new sub!

I found out about this film today after hearing about The Commandant's Shadow, so I could be completely missing the point of the cleaning and sanitizing scenes but to me, as a history lover and someone who is always seeking out museums and the like I think there could be a point being made about sanitizing to destroy or hide the evidence and what evils were happening, vs cleaning the museums to preserve history so we have it and have to face it.

This movie was brilliant , so eerie. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Exceptional analysis. Thank you. When you are still thinking about a film days after watching it speaks to its profound message

Genuinely one of the best KZfaq channels for movie analysis on this platform bro

I guess one of the most important conclusions is how we tend to distance ourselves by saying people like the Hösses or other Nazis were evil monsters. They were not. They were husbands, fathers, brothers and sons. Of course it's comforting to see them as not human because then we won't have to reflect on ourselves. With that abstract concept of demonizing them (which is understandable considering their horrific crimes!), we completely miss out the point why they did what they did and how they were able to do it while actually really believing they did the best they could to provide for themselves, their families, their society and for mankind, sometimes even without being rascists or anti-Semites. Believing we ourselves would never be able to do this because we aren't evil monsters but on the right side of history is the direct way into the next dictatorship or even the next genocide, probably only of a different kind. It's not like the world had to wait all that long after Nazi-Germany had been defeated.

You always have such fantastic analysis videos!

Pretty sure the end was showing that he may be terminally ill. I don't think there was any guilt from him.

Hey, what a great analysis. Answered every question I had after watching the film.

I saw this movie 7 days ago and I was, as you say, chewing on some of the scenes your video just enlightend me on. good analysis, thank you.

I’m watching it in an hour, I’ll edit and put my thoughts here when I get back. Edit: … this is very experimental and unnerving. The score sounds straight out of hell. Not my favorite of the BP noms, but one that I will be thinking about for quite a long time.

One of the things that seems to stick with me about the camera work is all of those wide shots where we can see a glimpse of what's happening over the wall even as the characters are (intentionally) walking in a way that screens it from their view. Such a simple and effective way of getting the message across.

Dude this is so fucking good. Congrats. Best Oscar Expert video so far

I will watch this movie again because of it's depth. Thank God for A24. Some of them...Midsommer, The Green Knight, Lamb, Everything All At Once. I think they also did "The Killing Of A Sacred Deer. Many more that we probably would not have seem otherwise.

Remarkable analysis and review. Brilliant. Thank you.

Your ending part was really well written and said.

What I love is this film along with glazers under the skin MAKES THE AUDIENCE decide what the characters are feeling and thinking when I first saw under the skin, I was confused as hell but watching a second time I understood that glazer dosent TELL you anything, he SHOWS what the alien is going through and her face after humans help her up, her face when she looks in the mirror recognizing her own self. Here it’s the same. After watching a third time I noticed that rudolf in little bits and pieces does not even really like his job or their house. The opening scene has him staring into the ceiling as he tries to sleep, even at the camp he’s sort of looking to the left and smoking a cigarette outside he leans to the right ignoring the wall. Even when he moves away from his house he seems a little more happy watching the marching band, playing with that dog, ect. And yes when he almost throws up his evil sprit at the end but he can’t do it. He realizes that years from now, these people will be remembered and this building will be a museum some day so… it’ll all turn out good in the end. Time to go to bed

This movie was hauntingly disturbing and so well done. A sad commentary for everyone today. No graphic violence, but disturbing none the less

I believe Glazer has said that night vision was the only way they could shoot a those scenes without using artificial lighting.

Something else tying into your theme of light and darkness is the title made of white letters being consumed by the darkness. Literally showing the words "The Zone of Interest" being darkened, just as Hoss' zone of interest debatably darkens in the end, though obviously not fully.

This is my favorite analysis of this movie!

I can't wait to see this. I am Austrian, so this is about my people and our complicity to this day.

Great vid. Quick question if I may. Who is the artist of that large yellow print/painting directly behind the computer monitor? Very interesting artwork. Curious to learn more... Many thanks

i didn't know what this movie was about and just watched it as i saw the name around without reading any reviews and was so shocked and shaken. i definitely saw myself as the Hoss family...esp in regards what is happening in our world now....and being a vegan...esp what we are doing to the animals on a mass scale. This is probably one of the most shocking, subtle, quiet and understated movies that i have ever watched.

Smells the most haunting how they could live with that and not be affected and they weren't affected.😢

The only cineastic experience similar to that was Shoah by Claude Lanzman

I like this kind of movies. Seeing how people take these irrational, brutal ideologies for granted must cause people somewhere in the world to question their own ideologies and the system they live in.

Your main takeaway is that we are supposed to see ourselves in the Hösses. Glazer himself pushed this interpretation in interviews. But my takeaway is almost the exact opposite of yours. For me, the most striking element of The Zone of Interest is that all the superficial ways in which the Höss family is similar to us just serve to make their *unique* evil so much more viscerally frightening and horrific. My interpretation is different because I believe it's way too convenient to draw a line between feeling comfortable and decorating your house while wars are happening in the world (what we do) and deliberately orchestrating a plan to murder over a million people virtually with your bare hands (what Höss did). Any line you draw between these two things is almost offensive in its generalization. Höss is *very* tuned into the suffering around him - he personally runs the camps and wipes blood off his boots - he just doesn't care. His preoccupation with gassing people is something we cannot even contemplate. The contrast between a normal family garden on the one hand, and the callousness and evil of a kind never seen before or since on the other, induces a sick horror and serves as a testament to the backdrop of one of the worst atrocities in history. I agree with you that this horror comes from the realization that the Nazis were human beings and their acts emerged from human nature. And yes, it serves as another awakening to never allow such a horror happen again. But my interpretation diverges from yours in that I think it's crucial to recognize that there is a circuit breaker to that part of our human nature, a red line that prevents us from devolving into such atrocities. It is extremely rare for a nation to descend into the moral depravity of Nazi Germany - if that has ever even happened. Nothing today approaches the horrors of the Holocaust on any level - not Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, the Southern border. It's not just numbers - the Holocaust by its nature was a singular event, one of a tiny number of times in history that a government resolved to exterminate a population through an explicit Final Solution, and not as part of war for conquest but purely for ideological reasons. The horror we feel comes from seeing that red line broken, not as part of a melodrama or thriller but as a shockingly real depiction of reality as it actually happened in all of its blandness. The analogy you made that is most comparable is animal agriculture, but I think that comparison illustrates my point about the circuit breaker. With animals, that red line just doesn't exist in our brains, and humans throughout history have had no qualms about killing animals for food. Not so with people. My interpretation of the ending is that Höss is descending the stairs to hell. Regarding the Polish girl, I've seen others point out that her scenes fade in from Höss reading fairy tales to his daughter, almost as if to say that this contrast of good was just a wish upon a star during the Holocaust. Thanks for your analysis. The Zone of Interest is my favorite film of 2023 as well. It is a heavy and shocking film however you choose to interpret it.

The credits with that unsettling song at the end had me frozen in the theatre..

living in germany, from the start at that lake shot, it felt so brutal how real, besides the clothes that’s a pretty normal german afternoon in summer time… the parallels either the present are absolutely powerful.

Amazing work Cole 🙏🏻

Beautifully written video. Incredibly put

The movie shows me the fragile barrier between my daily narcissistic self and my ignorance of the existential other.

I heard about this movie and unfortunately it didn’t show around in any theaters near me but also I’m kinda glad. My skin was crawling with this movie and I had to stop it and sort of take a breather because it was making me so upset. Really amazing movie but not an easy one to watch. Especially with headphones on. The sound design was really good in the most horrible way.

@4:37 I think it's also worth adding to this an Upton Sinclair's quote: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

Great Review! Thank you!