THE ZONE OF INTEREST Ending Explained & Movie Review
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- čas přidán 10. 06. 2024
- I review, breakdown and explain The Zone Of Interest. I discuss the 2024 movie from A24 which stars Sandra Huller and Christian Friedel. I give my theories on the ending which saw Rudolf walking down the stairs and it cutting to the present day, I provide an analysis on why the sound is so powerful and also compare it to the real events.
00:00 Intro
00:50 The Zone Of Interest Review
06:19 The Zone Of Interest Ending Explained
08:24 Outro
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What did you think of The Zone Of Interest? Let me know your thoughts below!
At 7:48 - I think you missed one of the central points of the film. It's not that these were evil people, it's that these were normal people.
What a terrible analysis, you completely missed the point of the movie if you interpret the final scene as "can't be explained". Yes I'm sure the director put the final scene in for no reason at all.
Almost as good as All of Us Strangers! Better than Oppenheimer, Barbie, and Anatomy of a Fall...
Boring
Having read interviews with Glazer, he says that when researching the film, he discovered how unremarkable the Hoss's were.
I think you may have misinterpreted Höss's wretching at the end, as well as the film representing him as "pure evil". I read it as his body having a visceral reaction to the truth of what he had been doing despite the fact that he had mentally compartmentalized and rationalized it. The whole point of the film is to underline the fact that it wasn't evil monsters who carried out the Holocaust, it was human beings like us.
And now Zionists are doing unto others what was done to them, and hosting parties next to a concentration camp.
I completely agree. To solidify that point of compartmentalization, there was even the scene of the doctor evaluating his stomach. Surely due to some long-lasting "visceral reactions" as you said. Incredible film!
Same. It’s just like the end of the incredible doc the act of killing, where an old man wretched repeatedly after watching himself reenact his killing during the Indonesian genocide. His face shifts from pride rewatching to confusion to deep contemplative disgust.
Well said
That was essentially my interpretation as well. That it was showing that even his own body was retching in disgust to what he was choosing to do. Höss pausing and looking into the darkness "seeing" the flashforward was to me showing that he understood the extent of his actions and still continued to descend literally and figuratively towards that end.
I think the point of the museum scene at the end is to demonstrate the parallel with our current day. The people cleaning the museum are "just doing their jobs" as well, equally tuned out to the horror in front of them. The shoes are artifacts in a museum that we can just as easily be disconnected from if we don't meaningfully sit with the fact that every shoe represents a human being who was murdered.
I thought that too. I visited Auschwitz a few weeks back and that feeling came home. workers employed here maintaining ,cleaning. Every day stuff.
A woman selling snacks and drinks outside Auschwitz from a van.
Fridge magnets too!!
I felt the EXACT same way
I agree! Great comment!
@@billycaspersghost7528 you can get an Auschwitz fridge magnet?
Interesting I thought similar. I thought that scene was meant to show the eventual mess he would make by contributing to Auschwitz if he chose to keep murdering people. Like that was the future of his actions
Another thing that was wild to me was even the ways the little boys played. When the older brother locked the younger brother in the green house and made gas noises was truly haunting for me how normalized even the kids thought this horrific genocide was.
And playing with gold teeth 😭
scenes i cant stop thinking about from this movie:
- the man fertilizing the garden with the ashes of people who died in Auschwitz
- the girl sneaking into the camp at night to leave apples and pears for the prisoners.. trying to help them
- a boy choosing what toy to play with, overhearing a conversation that the guards will kill prisoners who were fighting over an apple... presumably left by the girl. leaving you with the reminder that even the small act of goodness was not enough to stop the systematic mass genocide
- the wife pridefully and naively bragging to her mother about being called "the queen of Auschwitz"
- the wife immediately burning the note left from her mother after reading it, who left bc she couldn't stand witnessing the fires of the gas chambers burning at night. thats what the family does; they avoid thinking about anything that makes them feel bad.
Hedwig Hoss brags being called The Queen of Auschwitz was the most disgusting words she said to herself in the movie. Like wtf...Am I hearing 💀
The woman was not naiv at all.
Half of your points are wrong.
@@irma8692 no but the actress Sandra Hüller told in an interview that she had to say the line with a proper mix of naivity and arrogance
@@meluzinaskolastika746 i was not talking about Sandra but about Hedwig Hensel
What stood out to me was the girl who would leave the apples for the workers who were undoubtedly told to dig either their own graves or the graves of their loved ones. Forgot about the scene until you hear in the background of a boy getting yelled at by a guard and was told to be "drowned in the river" over fighting over an apple... all from the lens of a young boys room who is choosing which toy to play with. Chilling...
The girl who left the apples is a true story of a real polish girl who did the same. She is credited in the film.
@derekcross202
Hello, the director explained the reason that made him insert the story of the girl with the apples. At a certain point in his research for the film he began to feel very bad and thought about giving up on the story. He researched a lot. Then something woke him up, that he needed to find a counterpoint to that hostile environment. It was then that he came across the fantastic story of the Polish girl who left apples near Jews' shovels or partially buried. During the investigation he discovered that the girl also once found a box with the sheet music of an original song, probably left by a musician prisoner, as a final way of thanking her for the noble gesture of leaving apples. And at a given point in the film, the director even shows the actress playing the original song of the Jewish prisoner, on the piano.
@@MultiSUPERLATIVOthank you for commenting this 😊 I just came back from watching the film and immediately wanted to look into an explanation
@@MultiSUPERLATIVOits also, worth noting that the thermo optical use of that child is both the glowing light in the despair of the movie's theme. At the Oscars, Glazer himself thanked and pointed out the Polish girl as the glowing light in the darkest night for humanity.
This scene was so hard to watch I cried 😢
It is also a film (a sort of huge metaphor) about the fact that all humans make always a "little paradise" for themselves (when they can) while the others are dying on the other side of all walls in the world... And we (almost) all live it quite well...
Very reminiscent of Gaza
@@goldenhourgyes!
Reminiscent of Iran @@goldenhourg
good point, I picked up on that the second time I saw it. Not seeing it again
What
I remember the start of the film being black screen with haunting sound. I thought my theater was malfunctioning, but when I found out that was on purpose… 🤯
Hahahaa me too!
This is comman sense if you watch international cinema
same. the intro with the sounds and the black screen, and when the thermal camera came on I thought the theater had mistakenly inverted the image
Christ, you people are so vanilla.
@@nectarinedreams7208😂😂😂😂😂😂
I’ve never sat in a cinema so silent and still as this movie. Everyone was transfixed the whole time, it doesn’t let you go for a second. The sound design, editing and cinematography is perfectly crafted from start to finish.
Yeah it was so powerful!
I saw this yesterday here in Germany in the city where Sandra Hüller lives. I felt really uncomfortable seeing how Germans around me were laughing and giggling before it started. And afterwards I didn't notice them seeming affected or moved. They just got up like it was a regular movie. No one was crying. I walked out like a zombie with tears streaming down my face. I stood outside the theater taking deep breaths to calm myself down because the film was so heavy and tense. It was a relief when it ended..To be honest, I really wonder if Germans can allow themselves to feel the weight of it all. It's the weight of six million dead souls...
@@daniellekrammel4211for what it’s worth, the Germans seemed to reckon with their past better than many. Here in America the confederate flag is flown everywhere and its leaders are honored with streets, buildings, and monuments lionizing their cause of slavery and white supremacy. We have movies that turn the genocide of the indigenous Americans into a cute little love story. We have an easier time processing what the Nazi’s did because we see them as the epitome of evil who committed heinous acts in a far off land. Meanwhile we ignore or even sanitize the heinous acts committed on our own blood drenched soil. This is one of the reasons I felt the movie was so brilliant artistically. Many people feel the Nazis were cartoon villains who you would immediately know were evil just by spending a few moments around them. They believe that acting like humans in one’s day to day life means you cannot be like them. When the distance between us and them is closed perceptually, it really makes us think about that which we have done and ignored/compartmentalized. Obviously few people can claim to be at the head of an operation that tortured and mass murdered millions of people. But what about the family of Rudolph hoss who was able to so effectively block out the suffering around them? Most people aren’t mass murderers, but the depiction of the family who knew what was happening and went on unfazed should terrify us all. The complicity in evil is something we are all capable of and frankly guilty of. That to me was the most powerful statement of the movie, a mirror held up to society for us to see our reflection…
I found it both fascinating and completely unnerving. You’d observe a scene that appeared utterly normal only to have something break in to remind you of the significance of the location. It happened repeatedly and I imagine the slow pacing was intended to showcase this harrowing juxtaposition. Surely the most original movie addressing the holocaust.
That's part of the brilliance. It's normality and the horrific nature of what's going on. It's almost banal to say it's about "the banality of evil" but this film does it in such a way that it's honestly unforgettable.
This work will remain as a seminal work of holocaust filmography.
Dichotomy to an evil tee! 😮
Nice one. Please allow me to add something.
The key to understanding the ending, is the girl handing out apples and the growling noise that's associated with her. She seems to represent a great force of good that transcends space and time and is able to penetrate even the darkest and most evil places of humanity. This would explain why we hear the loud growling noise representing the sheer power of good in humans, and see her in negative making her glow in the dark i.e. her light (good) wins over darkness (evil).
We see her twice, and both times the association is made to the sound, so it's fair to assume this connection is intended.
What's more is how this girl, and what she represents, is able to haunt the people under the influence of darkness and evil. Thus just before we see her the first time we're introduced to Rudolph's sleepwalking daughter. She's looking out the window at the chimney and tells Rudolph that she "has to hand out sugar" - and the very next thing we see is the girl handing out apples (fructose/fruit sugar). Somehow, it seems, the daughter is being haunted by the idea that she has to do as the girl does, hinting at the power of "good" and justifying the loud noise associated with it.
The force could be taken as a lot of thing i.e. religious or supernatural, but I'd probably go with things learned through evolution and the stories we tell each other. We thus instinctively know that we're probably supposed to help each other, since that's how our ancestors survived and also this is what's being passed on through generations via stories, fairy tales etc. We explicitly hear the mother reading from "Hansel and Gretel" thereby ironically telling her children a story about helping someone out of a burning oven, which can be seen as good magically making it's way into the family house.
Accepting this premise would explain what happens to Rudolph after the transfer. The important moment here is when he's walking down the boulevard (I think) and we suddenly hear the loud noise once again. At this moments "good" is coming to haunt him and he gradually is overcome with clarity and feelings of ever increasing discomfort. First we see him at what looks like a routine check at the local doctor, but if one pays attention he's clearly being check for "something with his stomach". This is significant, because this is often where stress and mental discomfort manifests.
He momentarily forgets about this when getting excited about how he is going to increase "production" by a huge amount. But walking down the stairs (clearly symbolizing a descent into darkness) he's overcome with nausea and vomits. He then sees the small beam of light shining through what turns out to be a keyhole in the otherwise dark corridors. The following cut to present day could be taken as an interruption of the story unfolding on screen, but I see it as directly woven into the narrative and that the force of good has somehow transcended time and allows Ruldolph to gain outside perspective. Now he realizes, that his deeds will go down in history as a monument of the unspeakable evil that humans are capable of.
Once the intermezzo is over, we cut to his puzzled and horrified face which seems to indicate that he actually saw what we saw (at least at the symbolical level). He does however choose to continue his descent.
wow I love this interpretation. thank you for sharing. seeing the film a second time on Thursday. can’t wait to watch with a fresh set of perspectives.
Nausea & vomit = guilt. Not listening to his meager conscience. IMO
@@mirfir agree and that’s also my point
What a fantastically written description, thank you
To me, the girl/apples scenes are left to the viewer's interpretation. Just like in a David Linch movie, you can throw at it almost any meaning you want. And that's why I didn't like them. They didn't belong in the movie. Ironically, the growling noise meant to me the exact opposite to goodness: the sheer horror and unconscious guilt of the crimes being committed. It reminded me of bowel movements, which made sense considering the medical examination scene. It would actually be quite bizarre to represent goodness with that awful noise.
Unlike other Nazis Rudolf Hoess completely accepted responsibility for his actions and made no defense prior to his execution. He wrote a memoir while he was awaiting his death that is one of the most frightening books ever written because it shows he was not some anamoly of pure evil, just an ambitious soldier who accepted a racist and genocidal ideology (with deep roots in German history and culture) and proceeded to carry out the tasks assigned to him.
Antisemitism has a long history in many countries, intensified by the industrial revolution and the exigencies of capitalism. The Holocaust could have happened anywhere. I think that's the larger message of the film.
Jews got persecuted pretty much wherever they went. The arab world has much deeper reaching roots of antisemitism than any european nation.
Rodulf Höss was apparently one of the few who expressed regret in the end, at least in letters he to his family before he was executed. I sorta felt like the wrenching may have slightly referenced that.
Retching
Regret not remorse
@@msdecleir6389 aren't those synonyms?
@@piotrczernecki3466nope one is wishing you had not done something (regret), the other is feeling bad about something you have done (remorse)
@@jessiemagee1760 thank you for explaining
I love this movie top to bottom. And I think the scariest part is that in in this day and age - there are still people in this world who deny that this ever happened and / or actually support it. Thanks for your review!
Yeah, it's a well crafted film. I was left in complete silence at the end. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Those Jews know are doing Holocaust to Palestinians and you are silent.
i find it more scary that even today there are people who would start a new holocaust any second, if they were allowed to act with impunity
@@chriz9959hate to break it to you but there are several happening as we speak.
Great movie and my favorite of 2023. So many little horrifying moments stick with me, the boot washing, the child hearing a Jew being killed for fighting over apples, the lilac bush call, the chimney glow, etc.
I have a few interpretations of the ending. I feel like his dry heaving was his natural humanity physically bubbling up and fighting him before he ignored it and continued. He can't even walk into a room of fellow Nazis without thinking about the logistics of gassing them all.
The modern day scene was almost like a play against the audience, seeing all the janitors cleaning it like it was a normal place. As if the film was saying "when you're around something long enough, anything is normal"
That's what I felt about the "museum" scene also. It was just another job. It was not flattering.
I have not seen this film yet but I wonder if the ending is about Mind / Body disconnect?
Can you explain the lilac bush part?
Regarding scene with janitors cleaning...not sure how anyone of us could approach this task daily with reverence? We clock-in/out over a period of months/years in a disturbing setting, yet have limited time to clean area before next round of visitors pass through. Guessing our first few days "On the Job" would have be especially daunting. Who knows what nightmares haunt these custodians. Could be high-turnover rate also. Difficult to pass judgement on a thankless occupation surrounded by Historic Horror . . .
I also thought it was a powerful scene when Hedwigs mom wasn’t to be found in the house at that one moment and she left a message on a piece of paper and the note seemed to upset Hedwig and she just put it in the oven.
So everything unpleasant for them is easy to get out of the way by putting it in the oven. I was so disgusted by that
In some ways, the Holocaust is incomprehensible. This film goes towards trying to understand and process it. We may never reach the point when the puzzle is finished and we can comprehend it.
A timely movie considering how many of us are currently rationalizing/compartmentalizing the Genocide in Gaza.
I have two ending theories.
1. I think the hole in the door at the beginning of the modern day memorial scene was just like how the apples appeared in the scenes showed in negative. I think they are both there to represent hope and ultimately good beating evil in the end, as we tribute those lost and obviously remember Nazis as evil. Hoss breaks the forth wall during this as if to look at us as a judging jury.
2. The detachment of work from horror. As much as Hoss is obviously working for an evil cause, we never hear him extrovertly speak ill of thd victims, arguably, his wife is worse. He is a professional and has seperated the horror from his career, which is also probably why he wretched, as he is keeping horror inside to a point his body canr anymore. This is then juxtaposed with people who work in one of the most harrowing places on earth, but need to separate emotion to work effectively, as did Hoss.
I also think its interesting that the last we see of Hoss he isnt controlling the light, and he walks into darkness for the first time. Ultimately embracing the evil he has become and is about to be
You can tell what attracted glazer to the film and location becuase of how this house is the perfect metaphor for planet earth. Life and death happening at once. Heaven and hell happening at once. The garden of Eden and gates of hell next door to each other. A greenhouse on one side of wall that promotes growth of life while another building across the wall promotes death and carnage . The sounds of birds chirping clashing with sounds of screaming and crying, images of children playing while children being separated on other side of wall. Look at the flowers look at your man made pool, play with the dog. What’s that over the wall? Nothing… why do you care? It’s their fault not yours according to your family. Sorry to be so graphic but glazer just puts it all out there. People always ask how people sit around all day and not doing anything to stop atrocities … this family was RIGHT NEXT DOOR FOR A LONG TIME and their mind did not change… will we? I also love how after seeing the film 4 times I notice that hoss might have had the 0.00001 percent of knowledge or self denial about what he is doing. The first scene shows him in bed looking into distance as if something is not right, him not wanting his children to see any bones from his work, and his inner soul rejecting his body as he tries to throw up any of the evil in his body but he cant
Well said. 🇵🇸❤
Eloquent!
Yep!
What makes the universe turn?
In a scene before this, Höss's body seems to be trying to expel the evil that is inside him (he coughs, tries to vomit), but the thing is so strong, his evil is so powerful that it remains in him. I read a very good review about this final scene, the person said that Rudolf stops and looks directly at us, the viewers, and then we show him the Holocaust Museum with the result of what he helped to do, the destruction of thousands of lives.
He seems to think for a bit but then returns to the staircase (no regrets) and descends the steps into the darkness, which is where his soul belongs.
David Lean said "I think violence is much more frightening if you leave it to the viewer to imagine." In his film Oliver Twist and the murder of Nancy, he cuts away from the scene and all you see is Sikes’ dog Bull’s-Eye going frantic the other side of the door. The Zone Of Interest doesn't show any graphic detail, but so powerful with the background over the garden wall and the background noises. Very disturbing with the horror of what is happening using atmosphere and sound without seeing it. Not an easy watch, but I would see it again, think it needs a second viewing to be fully appreciated.
Unfortunately no one learned from this subject matter because it still happens
Where ?
Just that today, some of the decendants of the victims, have become the perpetrators. And this is going on since decades with only a fraction of whats happening now shown in the mainstream western media.
@@y.k.9705 In Palestine, a genocide carried out by Israel with the help of the United States and the rest of Europe, including Germany
@@y.k.9705 In Palestina, in Congo, Rwanda- the list goes on
The fact that you make a comparison between the Holocaust of the Jews and the terrorists of Gaza is simply delusional and without any basis
my interpretation of the ending was that doctors tells him he has some kind of disease, hence vomitting later. That causes him to reflect on life. He calls wife late at night which for such a disciplined and organized guy seemed out of character. And mentions how proud he is about their name being name of the operation. And then when he descends on the stairs he thinks about his legacy. How people will remember him. That's when he sees the future. Despite that he continues.
pour quelqu'un de "normal" ca pourrait se tenir sauf qu'historiquement, ce commandant dans son livre; n'a jamais eu aucun regrès ni compassion ni doute donc bon ....
@@jeflehardi91 yeah. I mean that's my interpretation of the film. I don't know how it was in the real life
I think he was just feeling sick from his job, though it was not to be admitted, just tamped down and dismissed.
Johnathan Glazers use of sound is incredible. Under The Skin was very similar. Brilliant film maker.
Even today, the reason why the farmlandl around Auschwitz is so rich is because the ashes have nourished the soil. That is what I noticed when I saw the gardens of the mansion house.
After all this years it wont matters The ashe, at home i do that evwery year cause it wont be fertile if i dont do it yearly.
At 7:55 Rudolf looks at you. The film is about you, us, everyone. How we can all be complicit or ignorant to horrors in many different forms.
I went to see this last night and it may be one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. That ending had me speechless.
Pure silence as the credits rolled. It was such a powerful watch
Go watch" the reader " too... It will tell you the way those Germans did saw it... And why they had the job...
@@truthordare9495great movie
her mom complaining about the wait on the train in that heat
when she bickering rudolph about spa and listening whether their daughter wandering around again at night, a gunshot probably shooting a wanderer down
According to Höss autobiography while in jail, he still maintained very little self-awareness until the very end. I think his gagging in the hallway was that he was sick but wanted to hide it or any weakness. The visit to the dr and exam of his stomach told me that. The air alone would make someone ill and I think he was dealing with health issues caused by the proximity to so much “pollution”.
That's historically correct. Hoess had health issues since 1943 related to the ashes and smoke in Auschwitz, this is also slightly portrayed when his mother in law visits and sits outside with his wife and immediately coughs (it's a way of saying the air wasn't healthy). In jail he showed regrets in the end close to his execution, he seemed to actually understand his crimes.
what she said to her maid was the moment that shocked me
I think that line was forced and out of place, because through the whole movie we are asked to believe that they are normal people who are ignorant of the devil and suddenly she says some like that, it felt unnecessary
I think it fits perfectly, because out of her anger she couldn’t get a handle due to her mom leaving in the situation, she said something they mostly ignore but ultimately aren’t oblivious to. Happens to the husband’s physical uneasiness too.
The line was actually found during research for the film, from the testimony of one of the Polish girls that worked at the house. Like, Hedwig really said that.@@amirleo2051
What line are you referring to?
"I could have my husband scatter your ashes" @@wascot2910
The girl and/or daughter shown in negative can represent a streak of goodness in an otherwise cold and evil home. I saw the ending as Rudolph slightly realizing that he can be separated from his family too and pain and disease is coming to him also. Not that it would change him but that’s a hint for him that we are all mortals and our powers are limited.
It's also based on a real girl who planted apples to help feed the starving, that the director met weeks before she died.
I don’t think Hoss’s vomiting while going down the stairs was indicative of two things: he was wretches 😊because of his exposure to human remains dust getting into his lungs (the medical exam?) and his recognition that his work is just a cog in the wheel of torturing people not so different from himself. His work will not be remembered after the war. It’s more of a self recognition moment than an attack of guilt which he never would feel.
The best about the movie is, how historically and psychologically accurate most of it is.
The worst is: Without some background knowledge you may misinterprete and miss A LOT of it.
As a german and knowing a lot about this time and psychology, certainly getting most of the hints, I still sat down with my wife and read up the background of the Höss family for some hours. That's what these kind of movies should achieve!
I encourage everybody to read some stuff up instead of just guessing what certain aspects mean. I read many wrong interpretations out of lack of knowledge. For example many don't know why they were so alarmed when the kids came in contact with the ashes in the river: Ashes makes water basic...it will literally turn your body fat into soap. So it wasn't, because the parents were grossed out in any way. It was just plain dangerrous to be in contact with the basic water.
😮😮😮😮😮
I did read about that water mixed with ashes can leave burns on the skin, but where did you read about that it turns your body fat into soap? It's great that there are still people out there who read so much about the subject/content matter of a movie.
I thought this film was a powerful statement about willful ignorance, complicity, and amoral familism. It mirrors contemporary life in the developed world refracted through a historical lens. I felt like a fly on the wall as the zone of interest was only the ordinary details of ordinary people engaging in everyday life inside the confines of the garden. It felt like a reality TV show...lifestyles of the comfortably fascist? The opening sequence of darkness sets off the events in the flick from the present, and the cleaning crew connects them to the present. Are we equally indifferent to a certain genocide and developing regional wars that might consume our world as it did the world of the Hoess family in the end?
Sound is the KEY in this amazing film. There is irritating "brown noise" in the background at the home at all times! Low frequency, aggravating and creating a constant sense of unease. It stops every time we're away from the home. And the surrealistic sounds and visuals when the girl hides fruit around the INTAKE parts of the camp that she can access. Brilliant, and has its own freaky noise. And the constant, almost muted/normal background noise of gunshots. This movie is disturbing in its "mundane" and "bureaucratic" depiction of such horrible acts. It was just an "assignment at a location"... it was a promotion", just a regional "business meeting" Turn your "project reports" to page one...
The "brown noise" was literally the crematorium, the sound of "burning bodies" :(
Every secondary school child needs to watch this film. Brilliant, unsettling and unforgettable
hmm, why? I disagree, it's an art piece... not a documentary. Was Höss' house really next to Auschwitz? I mean I'm really asking that
Acho que os adultos é que precisam assistir ainda mais do que as crianças...
@sarahharris2729 Google it's free ma'am, yes they lived in Auschwitz, it's based on a true story, his wife was called the "queen of Auschwitz". The director was allowed to film some of the scenes on location. The movie should he seen by everyone, it's a lesson on the banality of evil
@@sarahharris2729
"From 1940 to 1944, the Höss family lived in a two-story gray stucco villa on the edge of Auschwitz - so close you could see the prisoner blocks and old crematorium from the upstairs window." So pretty near the truth, in some ways. I think the previous post was referring more to the stark reality of what the film was showing. The cold normality of evil. We should all be aware of how this can easily happen.
@@sarahharris2729 It was. And the depictions of the gardens and him in the little boat with his children are so close the the actual photographs that it's uncanny. But I do agree with you that secondary school children would not understand this movie. One has to have some background in what was happening beyond that wall, what Operation Höss refers to, etc. to get the contrast between the atrocity and horror that's happening and how matter-of-fact they're being about it. Without that context, it's just a family drama about a husband and wife navigating their relationship through the stresses of work and a long distance promotion.
The retching part at the end is a clear hommage to the scene near the end of “The Act of Killing”- if you check that out, you will see that there is a clear parallel, both physically and the medically about what’s going on with that character.
(Spoilers below)
I'm interested in hearing different interpretations of Glazer having it be a cleaning staff in the museum during the flashforward. I feel it was reiterating one of the overall messages of the film that everyone "good or bad" is capable of becoming desensitized/accustomed to routine horrors and therein lies the danger.
ah ! je n'y avais pas pensé mais cela se tient
Great take!
I saw the film last week and it was a most disturbing and unsettling cinematic experience. I thought it tackled the sensitive subject matter extremely well. The sinister sound track punctuated by what felt like diabolical burps from hell itself and the use of the infra-red camera scenes were especially striking.
His descent into the abyss
The final scene reminded me of the documentary, "The Act of Killing." During its ending, an Indonesian gangster pauses to think of the pain and suffering felt by the political prisoners he tortured and executed. He then violently retches.
People must never be complacent... Stand up for yourself and reject oppression...
It was more than just ashes in the water- When Hoss was swimming he stepped on the bottom jaw of someone who had been drowned in the river or tossed in at some point when the camp first opened. That’s why he was freaking out- because the river was probably filled with dead bodies. This was one of the many methods the Nazis used prior to what they eventually ended up with.
I think the most chilling scene for me was when the house maid was sitting in her living room one night and immediately started gagging from the smell of the burning bodies. She gets up and closes the windows then hastily starts bringing her laundry in that’s hanging outside because of all the falling ashes.
It only works due to the knowledge of events portrayed in movies like Schindler's List, The Pianist, etc. What is even more frightening is witnessing younger people, especially in the US deny that these events even occurred.
So you group young people, especially from the US as holocaust deniers, that means you must be a Nazi.
great analysis, thank you!
Glad you liked it!
Watched All of us Strangers earlier today, watched your video about it and watched this movie in the evening, so happy to see you have a video of it as well! ❤️
Started out watching your videos about Black Mirror many many years ago, so glad that you are still here and making great content! ❤
Oh wow, you've been watching for a long time then! Thanks for coming back and watching the videos, it means a lot 😊
The mother leaving was interesting 😂 she couldnt handle the horrors.
I watched this with headphones the second time I saw it. I’d recommend anyone that sees this movie to try that out. You definitely catch things that you wouldn’t have heard without headphones.
The fact that nothing seems wrong from his examination from the doctor suggests that the reason he briefly got sick was a quick eruption of guilt and the realization of what he was doing, which he then compartmentalizes.
When I was in college either in Sociology or Psychology we had to read a book 'McDonalization' ... You know how this happened? How is that possible?
Because
Everyone just does his/her job
The train locomotive person just drives the train
The already imprisoned prisoners (not Germans, they just stay around with guns) ... (mostly Polish guards) ... unload the masses and lie to them (to be nice to them) that they will take showers
The person who throws the gas into special places is just following orders, he may actually be very sorry for what he is doing.
Etc. Etc.
And Germans at that time, Nazis if you will, they were told Jews are not human, Homosexuals are not humans, Poles are not humans ... My Gosh they not even on the level of a dog ... you may like to have a dog around you ...
And now Zionists say that Palestinians are not human, and should be wiped out. History is repeating in the worst way.
and say: I love you to a horse
Now Israel is saying that Palestinians are not human. Israel requires a "final solution" for Palestinians as the people they pretend never existed (a land without a people) do exist. Zionists didn't colonize Palestine with the intention of becoming part of the community that already existed there. They came to displace and exclude the people of Palestine from their homes and land physically and politically. If zionists had been inclusive instead there would be a very different situation now. Continuing the apartheid, Continuing the genocide of the people of Palestine will not result in a sustainable future for Israel.
Been there....Twice...once for a Visit...once as a guide
Both times in Temperatures 6 - 8 degrees below..
It's a life changing experience...and not a pleasant one.
But Necessary if you really want to understand, what we
Humans are capable of...Lest we Forget.
A timely movie considering how many of us are currently rationalizing/compartmentalizing the Genocide in Gaza.
Factory farms and slaughterhouses are the daily endless holocausts that we have blinded ourselves to, as much as the Hoss family refused to see past that wall.
@@JayB-xx5pk Yep...Twas ever thus
@@user-nv8nt6gm2d Oh I can see it perfectly..
@@user-nv8nt6gm2d Factory farms are bad, but there's still people being systematically killed and oppressed - yet you're focused on chickens?
Never again, yet we seen like this happening right now live and recorded
Outstanding film - both mesmerising and haunting. Stunning acting by both Sandra Huller and Christian Friedel - the film itself has just been nominated for 5 Oscars
Yeah I totally agree! It deserves to pick some up for sure!
Сандра великолепна
Speaking of contrast, there is a sharp contrast between the story Huss tells his children (Hansel and Gretel lock the witch in the OVEN) and ... the reality on the other side of the wall. Also, I was struck by how Evil slowly insinuates within the family, little by little (except for Hoss's mother in law). Towards the end, the older brother was "playing" with his younger brother, and he LOCKS HIM in the greenhouse; Huss's wife is indifferent to the good news that her husband is going back home. She is more and more nervous and unhappy as the story goes on. The movie shows "the banality of evil" well explained by Hannah Arendt: only a person completely unable to think from the standpoint of somebody else could commit such crimes. Not evil monsters, but just "normal" people...
I agree pretty much with your views, but I think he is also mostly scared to go back, to be confronted with his evil. His trip gave him perspective. I see more scare than guilt. A point that is never mentionned in the discussions is the scene where the mother has an affair with the gardener in the garden's hut, and then the kid is locked in it. Don't you think something happened there, like he discovered and everybody knows ? I do not remember exactly the last conversation of the couple on the phone, but to me it adds to the fact he does not want to go back.
The big brother locked the little brother in the greenhouse and he had a big smile on his face as he did it. This was to show us how the offspring of Hoss is swiftly and comfortably heading down the same road as his father.
@@thundercat8601 Makes sense. So the scenes are not connected. Ok. Thanks.
But also the father had an affair with the Jewish girl who entered his office…
I think you have to much imagination. Please read about this evil nazi family (parents ánd eldest son).
At first I was really confused by the film and what story it was trying to tell. The abrupt end confused me even further, but I eventually realized that the reason the end was so abrupt is, because there is no end. This takes place roughly in 1943 when the nazi empire was still standing strong. The holocaust wouldn't end for some years so there was no reason to give a normal ending, because the war wouldn't end till 1945.
Mind bending that this is a part of our history. Humans are inhumane.
It's still happening today, this time in Gaza.
I think this film is a masterpiece - the subject matter is deeply disturbing, but the total sum of this fine example of true art film craftsmanship is intelligent & quite brilliant. it reaches straight into the psyche & ends in such a profound way, it's difficult to describe.
One of the best movie that I have ever seen. Great review and explanation.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the video!
One of the most upsetting and very disturbing films I have ever seen. I found that I didn't need to read all the subtitles. What u see and hear is so upsetting. Excellent film that i will never watch again!!
Such a powerful film. The thing that struck me the most (besides the sound design) was the visual linking of past and present, a startling reminder that this happened less than 100 years ago. It's really tough to think about...
it was fascinating to watch a film about the holocaust that didn't play on the audience's sense of sentimentality. when i think of holocaust films, i think of films like schindler's list or last year's one life. some great films, sure, but there's an element of condescension in the way they constantly cue the viewer's emotions with swelling string sections and slow tracking shots of suffering victims. In ZoI, the narrative distance from the victims allowed the reality of the holocaust to exist in the viewer's mind rather than on the screen. It actually felt more real and more moral.
I love movies that don't show every little thing. Never showing auschwitz, never showing the sex scene, never showing the mom leaving. You truly are in this movie, using all 5 senses and the director doesn't treat us like we're dumb. You understand what he's showing you without it being thrown in your face. Truly captivating. Bravo 👏
I hated it very much and found it deeply depressing and disturbing. A very important film that everyone should see. Humans, dehumanising humans. Awful.
I was at auschwitz back in1989 when poland was still communist ,it was a truly horrible place,birkenau was worse and scary.
I was never upset by a film where nothing happens basically. Mnay will overlook many horrific details, because they have no knowledge of the camp. For example, the lipstick she uses is from a dead person probably, and the greyness which engulfs Hoss when he's having a bath in the river, that's the human remains of people which were dump in the river.
I don't think anyone is overlooking those horrific details.
And her beautiful gardens and flowers were fertilized with the ash of the victims
If only for a moment, his sociopathic disassociation has faltered. Discussing the film in a recent interview, Friedel seemed to reinforce that interpretation. “I think it's a fight: body against his soul,” the actor said of Höss's sudden sickness. “Because the body tells the truth and our mind, we can betray ourselves.
That's incorrect.
The idea isn't that.
Hoess had health issues since 1943 related to the ashes and smoke in Auschwitz, this is also slightly portrayed when his mother in law visits and sits outside with his wife and immediately coughs (it's a way of saying the air wasn't healthy).
To me the dark hallways and dim lighting on Hoss at the end seemed to evoke the feeling of insignificance and fleeting power. Hoss is excited for the coming operation and to go home to his family to live out the idyllic "east german life," but his victorious moment is cold and pathetic. He looks nervously into the darkness, and we cut to a tiny light through a peephole, as if the previous frame showing vast shiny halls has become insignificant and forgotten with time. It's like for a brief moment he sees the future, or at least can not see the future he imagined, only darkness.
The most important and best film of the year. It hasn’t left me since I watched last weekend.
It was such a powerful watch!
Hoss wretching at the end might be indicative of how his life ended, by hanging
There was a comment on some other video that said the ending was like history as a supernatural force reaching back through time and grabbing at Hoss. I think thats a pretty interesting idea. To me, the ending is actually kind of optimistic in a sad way. All of these attempts to silence and erase the Jewish people, but their history and existence is forever memorialized and kept clean & respectable by people who have good in their hearts. Despite all of his attempts, they still live on.
When rudolf is dry heaving in my opinion it’s both because he can’t suppress the evil and wrongdoing but also breathing in the ash and gas for so long has damaged his body, same goes for the grandmother, she arrives with comfort but leaves suddenly in distress once she’s exposed to the realities of the camp.
Fabulous film. One of the best I've seen in a long time.
An other film... It happend after ww2 the reader... Its a good true story
His wretching was a psychic prediction: for a moment, he could feel the true weight of his own future history. And was sickened by it.
bravo....excellent reviewq
Thanks!
As if the SS wasn't horrific enough who'd have thought the spouses could be worse! In example I present Hedwig...
The breakfast scene where she casually threatened the serving girl via her husband...
Can anyone please explain or recall for me what Höss says towards the end of the film to his wife on the phone about the people in the ball hall? He says something like he would want to gas those people but the ceilings are too high... did I understood that correctly?
He did not actually want to gas them . He was just making a morbid observation based on what he is doing for a living . At the Auschwitz camp, everyday he sees so many people crowded into tight spaces waiting to be gassed . Seeing all those Nazis gathered together must have reminded him about those victims. It shows how dark his mind is . From the way he speaks about death and the wife's calm reaction we see how these 2 characters have normalised the death of millions
@@danischannel alright, thanks for your take on this scene!
A remarkable film that challenges the viewer to contrast unseen horror and suffering with comfort, conformity and complacency in every frame.
I haven't watched it yet but wondered where you managed to see it?
Some theaters are playing it. Depends where you live
I watched it at an independent cinema in the uk
Possibly the best Holocaust film I've seen. After watching it I couldn't help but wonder what Stanley Kubrick would have thought of it. He had long planned an adapation of the novel "War Time Lies" which he was to rename the "Aryan Papers" but abandoned the project when he realized it was impossible to fully capture the horror of the Holocaust with a narrative film. When asked what he thought of "Schindler's List" he remarked: ""Schindler's List" isn't about the Holocaust. Schindler's list is a success story about one man who saved hundreds. The Holocaust is about the failure of humanity to save 6 million."
I wonder how that would have been . Some of the shots in this movie did remind me of Kubrick . My mind kept going back to 2001 A Space Odyssey for some reason
Thank you for pointing out the scene in which Rudolf and his kids washed themselves after coming in contact with the ashes running into the river. That was the biggest question I had in my mind, I did not understand that scene.
That's historically correct. Hoess had health issues since 1943 related to the ashes and smoke in Auschwitz, this is also slightly portrayed when his mother in law visits and sits outside with his wife and immediately coughs (it's a way of saying the air wasn't healthy).
@@CarlosGomes-en6xx nice observation!
Great review and insight-sharing. Do you think that there are parallels to our society today in that while we may not be able to hear the suffering and industrialization, but that there are millions suffering and dying everyday to facilitate our societal needs and wants. An example would be the nickel-mining for battery manufacturing that goes into our smartphones which continues to exploit child labor? (one of countless examples) Thoughts on these parallels?
I was curious about the title and was wondering if it relates to the psychological theory of the circles of reactivity and influence , with the core of the circle as your zone of control, the middle ring as the zone of your influence and the outermost ring as the zone of concern, or in this case zone of interest. The theory is that the zone of concern/interest is where the issues that are larger than the individual and beyond personal control. The movie made me think about whether the zone of interest was meant to be the activities ‘over the wall’ for Hedwig as she chooses not to see what goes on there.
The staircase, the staring just thinking, the stomach pain, the retching is there to show that Höss was not like a fairy tale villain, just an evil creature alien to us. These things show that he was just another person like everybody else, to whom the circumstances lead him further into darkness and horro as we watch him retching while descending this increasingly dark staircase and staring into the dark corridor, choosing his path. The message is that anybody is capable of murder and horror, and it's a choice. And we all just get used to anything given long exposure to it.
Is he wretching or is he choking? Maybe a flash forward to the future moment he is hung at the scene of his crimes after the war.
What was the girl going in black white episodes?
she was putting apples out for the prisoners so that they could survive
E N D I N G ? Looked like Hoss was "dry heaving" . . .possibly hocking-up phlegm of human ashes which he breathed daily. Earlier scene showed a black substance in sink which had been expelled from his nostrils while washing up.
This movie gave me chills
Same here!
I was a little confused about the scenes with the daughter in the negative film, was she riding her bicycle into the camp and leaving aples for the prisoners? Her father saw her looking out the window and asked her what she was doing, she said she was bringing them "sugars" was that a mistake in the translation.? What she actually doing it? There was a scene later on when they heard a man being shot and they were told that he was cought trying to steal an apple, I guess that was one of the apples she left.
The girl was a polish neighbour of the camp. She’s based on a real life person who as a 13/14 year old was part of the Polish resistance & went out at night to leave fruit for the starving prisoners.
@@lindamcgrath3027 thanks
@@lindamcgrath3027 Thanks
@@lindamcgrath3027 thanks
I thought it was one of the polish maids at their house or a polish girl living nearby . Definitely not the daughter but I think the director is trying to convey that there is goodness in this world like the polish girl leaving apples or the daughter who wants to give sugar and help but has no idea how to help
The only scene in this entirely perfect movie (in my opinion) that somehow seemed " out of place " or "unnecessary " i thought was Hess with the girl he brought to secretly sleep with down in the basement of the building
But at the very end scene as he began to walk down the stairs It reminded me of the previous scene in the way it was shot and as I wondered if they were going to show him again with another girl he brought down there it went dark and i was left feeling confused
I do wish they removed the first scene i spoke of as it was unnecessary and for me, took away the power of what they were trying to portray at the end of the movie
I found that scene on the horse very profound and brutal
Yeah I agree. There were some really shocking moments in this film. I even feel seeing the way that the family treated the dog with it looking like it was being treated well and having freedom around the house, and also the goodbye that Rudolf gave to the horse showed how they valued the animals above the lives of other humans
The people where nothing... An animal was better... They did learn children that a Jude was no human... And if you learn you will believe... Is you believe with a great group of people... Than it is reality... Time where different... But it wasnt only the judes. But they only speak of judes... It wasnt. There where more than only judes in those camps... Believe it or not but gays, lesbians... They where there too and the people with a handicap. They too... Its a believe and if you cant see the believe... Than stop... The Germans where people too... They believed something and did it. Yes its too far onhuman. But its in 1943... Other times... You will be there in the same chair. You dont know how life comes to you. But you know when it comes...
@@truthordare9495 what are you trying to say🤣
@@truthordare9495I understood nothing
The coldness of the Dutch engineers describing the new furnaces that would have a better 'turn around' of burning.
The janitorial cleaning at the end was the most disturbing to me. I understand it’s a museum now but it was hard to watch.
My take on the end of the film was that Hoss was descending to Hell. He wretches, as if a tiny glimmer of humanity that yet dwells within him rebels against the horrors he is responsible for. He pauses, as if to consider his actions and plans for the future. Should he turn back? Should he choose another path? Instead, he stays true to his course, moving further and further into genocide, going down the stairs into Hell.
The juxtaposition with the modern day, I took to be symbolic of attempts to clean Auschwitz of the stain it bears from history. But looming over the cleaners are the piles of shoes and belongings of the victims, testament to the fact that that place will never escape its past, and that humanity will never escape the darker side of its nature. It also shares a theme with the rest of the film: the cleaners do their banal work seemingly oblivious to the evidence, all around them, of the terrible crimes of the Holocaust, just as Hoss' family did the same in their banal day-to-day lives living next door to a death factory.
Rudolf Höss was a family man... But that's not what history will remember him for. That museum, and everything that it represents will be his legacy. The horror and misery that the Nazis caused will always be a part of him. And his decent down those stairs, is poetic as it represents his future, that there is no light at the end of his tunnel. There is only.... DARKNESS....
What about "The Boy With the Stripped Pajamas"? Is'nt it about the same theme as "The Zone..."?
A runtime of 1 hour 40 minutes is not short by any measure. Pretty standard.
it's a disgusting reminder that even in modern times 99%of the population is completely numb to violence and unwilling to disrupt their own lives to help another human being .
does the wooden door also play a role?
The flowers in their garden were dusty at times..