Zone of Interest – 9

Disquieting, thought-provoking, beautifully filmed and acted. “Is this what it was really like?,” is only the first of many questions. How would the revelation that this was Auschwitz have hit us if we hadn’t known ahead of time, from the reviews? How did German actors feel about portraying their history as told by a British director? Why was there a black dog running through so many of the scenes? Why was the commandant vomiting at movie’s end? I don’t know how to describe, technically, the square, straight-on long shots that director Jonathan Glazer used throughout the film, but it provided visual consistency and power: you are looking at this in full, without editorial comments. (The leads’ ugly hairstyles may have prejudiced the viewer, but I think they were props to help us identify the characters.) And as with many great films of ideas, I can’t remember whether it was shot in color or black-and-white.