The Zone of Interest

 

Supposedly based on the Martin Amis novel, though sharing little but the setting to my mind, The Zone of Interest is the story of Rudolf and Hedwig Hoss. Rudolf is the commandant of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, and Hedwig and his children live a blissful life in a home just outside the walls of the camp. Hoss is facing a reassignment to Berlin, a move fiercely objected to by Hedwig, and he must balance his obligations to the party with those of his family. 

This is a difficult movie to describe and an impossible one to forget. There is little to no action in the film, and no scenes of Auschwitz itself. That horror is left purposely in the background, literally and figuratively, with the occasional scream, a random shot, a chimney of smoke, all contrasting with the love and happiness to be found within the family. 

And that is the odd part, the point that is difficult to accept as a viewer. You do not *hate* Hoss. He is a steadfast husband, even if he is shown to unfaithful, and is without question a loving and doting father. His evil is compartmentalized and banal, a question of mathematics, not emotion.  If anything, you grow to despise his wife more: it is she who openly profits from the suffering in the camp, dividing up personal effects of the victims, degrading the staff, openly balking at the idea of leaving her personal fiefdom when her husband is transferred, thought the thought of separation tears at him. 

It's an unfair evaluation of course, as one begats the other, and his is the greater debt to mankind. But it is a stunning accomplishment of the filmmakers to make you feel that tolerance for Hoss, and that enmity for his wife. You are reminded, very subtly, that evil does not always come wearing horns and a mask, and that two things can be true at the same time: you can be a loving parent, and still orchestrate genocide. It is a chilling realization. 

Grade: A+

Quite apart from the film itself, I must wrestle with the fact that it is quite possible Hoss was forgiven by my God and has entered heaven. Raised a Catholic, he denounced the faith early in his life. After the war, he returned to it, and took confession before his execution. 

In my faith, confession is only successful if the person truly admits and regrets his deeds, and seeks never to repeat them. Based on a private, and powerful, letter to his son, his return to the faith, and his regrets, may have been sincere. 

It is difficult, oh so very difficult, to believe that a man that willingly murdered so many could find forgiveness and peace in the afterlife. That difficulty, I think, is itself a test for the faithful, and something that I am grateful to the film for showing me.