Directed by Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin) — Screenplay by Jonathan Glazer.

The other day, I overheard someone claim that she didn’t need to watch or read the news and that she shouldn’t be expected to. The memory of that remark came back to me after I saw The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer’s BAFTA-winning German-language World War Two historical drama about evil, complicity, wilful ignorance, what is happening just outside our borders, and the walls that we create and construct for ourselves as a means to hide from the meanness, ugliness, and cruelty of the world. Now, I definitely don’t mean to compare an ignorant remark from someone that I just overheard with a Nazi commandant and his family, who are the principal characters of The Zone of Interest, but that person’s insistence on not keeping themselves informed reminded me of just how many people make a choice not to engage with politics and world events even at a time of great injustice in the world (e.g. the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the Israel-Hamas war). The Zone of Interest is a film about Nazis going about their day with ease, talking about mass genocide as if it is statistics, and turning a blind eye to what is happening in the concentration camp next door. But it also holds a mirror up to the modern day to remind us to stay informed, as well as to stay vigilant and look out for the kind of evil that may be happening around us. It also is a disturbing and clear-eyed fly-on-the-wall-esque example of the complexities of historical perspectives that we are afraid to try to understand. The film highlights how evil seeps into the games children play when their world is surrounded by cruelty, and how easy it is for some people to commit monstrous acts thoughtlessly. It is an extraordinary film, but also one that will be testing for a lot of people — not because of its visuals but because of the images its soundscape conjures up in your head and for how untraditional Glazer’s approach is.

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