Jonathan Glazer's 'The Zone of Interest' Examines Indifference at Rome Film Fest

Jonathan Glazer's film 'The Zone of Interest' was presented in the Best of 2023 section at the 18th edition of the Festa del Cinema di Roma. The film deliberately strips away visceral emotions like rage, offering a rare and irreverent experience of lacking empathy for its characters. It focuses on the ordinary domestic life of SS officer Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, with the atrocities of Auschwitz kept off-screen, beyond the wall of their 'zone of interest.' Glazer's work is seen as an exploration of emotional indifference, distancing viewers from the body and the weight of flesh. The soundtrack by Mica Levi is noted for being understated compared to her work on 'Under the Skin.' The film challenges Paul Schrader's interpretation of it as an actualization of his ideas on transcendence in cinema, instead asserting that the film's value lies in showing nothing more than what is depicted. The review also reflects on the broader theme of creating physical and ideological borders, not limited to Nazism, and the innate human need for exclusion and private Edens.