Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

The Zone of Interest 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 1, 2024

A lot has understandably been written about the so-called "horrors of war", but what about the sheer banality of war? If that "juxtaposition" isn't immediately arresting, a few minutes spent with The Zone of Interest should disabuse anyone who thinks there have to be gunfights, bridge explosions and hand to hand combat in order to make a visceral "war movie". The Zone of Interest is rather provocatively interesting at least as much for what it doesn't depict as for what makes it into the frame, and one of this film's unabashed triumphs is what might be called its "allusive" sound design, which repeatedly indicates horrors are happening very close by, even if they're really not overtly shown. While ostensibly an adaptation of a novel by Martin Amis, Jonathan Glazer's film streamlines Amis' narrative, but "narrative" may be something of a misnomer with this effort, since (to offer another alarming juxtaposition), kind of like what used to be said about Seinfeld, "nothing happens". Instead, there's a slow, steady accretion of "everyday" vignettes that just happen to include the fact that the setting of the story is the camp commandant's house at Auschwitz during World War II, a domicile that literally backs to the concentration camp and which is separated by a brick fence topped with barbed wire. If the family and their hangers on in the home can't actually see what's going on, that aforementioned soundtrack is "alive" with the sounds of death, including the nonstop roar of a furnace "disposing" of human remains.

Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) and their gaggle of kids are introduced out in the beautiful Polish countryside, where they're frolicking on a summer day next to a river. Only when they later return home does it discursively become apparent that they live next to Auschwitz, where Höss is tasked with that famous (infamous?) German efficiency in terms of keeping prisoners in line and, of course, maintaining the "death machine" which is hauntingly if intentionally mundanely mentioned in a meeting Höss has with the engineers who have designed the furnaces and smokestacks to maximize the number of corpses that can be incinerated daily.

If that vignette chillingly reminds the viewer of what's happening just off screen, the bulk of this film is really more concerned with the day to day lives of the Höss family, though there's a bit of political intrigue when it appears that Höss is likely to get transferred. Aside from the omnipresent rumble of furnaces fired to their capacity, it would be hard to really tell what's going on, though there are (no pun intended) dead giveaways like prisoners helping with yardwork or even the former owner of the house the Hösses have coopted who has been conscripted into servitude. The blissful ignorance or at least perceived ignorance of the Germans is repeatedly undercut by their own actions and behaviors, which make it abundantly clear that as "normal" as events seem to be for them, they are well aware of what they've done and continue to do.

If the general outlines of this tale are inherently shocking if only because the depiction of them is so low key, there are presentational oddities that Jonathan Glazer brings to this enterprise which may not be completely helpful. The first of these is a patently odd decision to interpolate some brief vignettes involving a young Polish girl surreptitiously providing food for prisoners, which is filmed in infrared, in what seems to be an intentional "riff" on an at least somewhat similar presentational artifice featuring a little girl in Schindler's List (insofar as the "look" of these moments is different from the bulk of the film). There's another rather odd moment right at the end of the film where suddenly the viewer is transported to contemporary times as a janitorial crew cleans up what is now the Auschwitz museum, a vignette which just as strangely then segues right back to the World War II era for a second or two in its closing moments.

Despite a "narrative" where "nothing much" really happens, there are also some curious sidebars that may have warranted more explanation. Hedwig's mother's arrival and then subsequent departure may be on salient example, but even a seeming crisis of conscience for Höss at the very end of the film may not seem especially organically motivated. All of these niggling qualms aside, The Zone of Interest is one of the most startlingly and maybe even peculiarly visceral "war films" that I've personally experienced.

The Zone of Interest 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from A24's The Zone of Interest standalone 1080 release. Per A24's standard operating procedure, there is no 1080 disc in this package, and so the 2K video score above has intentionally been left blank.

The Zone of Interest is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of A24 with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 1.78:1. Captured with Sony CineAlta cameras and finished at 4K, this is a beautifully detailed presentation that takes many of the strengths of A24's 1080 presentation and at least marginally improves on things, though there are some intentional stylistic choices that simply need to be accepted. The first of these is a somewhat tamped down, almost slate gray infused, palette, where everything seems just very slightly desaturated, with a few notable exceptions like the stunning if brief shot of a bright red flower (the image adorns A24's cover art for the release). Rather interestingly, HDR only tends to emphasize the coolness of so much of the imagery, and the gray tone may be ever so subtly tinged with slight blue highlights in this version. Detail levels on costumes, props and general fabrics like upholstery or even wallpaper tends to be excellent, at least when lighting regimens allow. Several scenes are shot in either no or very low light, and there are brief passing moments where shadow detail is not especially revealing even given the blandishments of HDR. The infrared material is fascinating but to me anyway kind of stuck out like a sore thumb and actually disrupted the viewing experience for me (see screenshot 3 for one example).

The Zone of Interest 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Zone of Interest features a really impressive Dolby Atmos track that for virtually the entire length of the running time features simultaneous low frequency rumbling with nice overhead engagement of the Atmos speakers to detail what's going on with the furnaces behind the house. There are some moments removed from the camp, as in the opening streamside vignette, and those scenes also have nicely rendered ambient environmental effects that noticeably engage the side and rear channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available, but I was unable to turn off the English subtitles even after choosing "Subtitles Off" in the Subtitles Menu, which may somewhat humorously indicate that they're not optional.

The Zone of Interest 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Aleksandra (HD; 7:40) offers first person reminiscences from an elderly woman who was part of the underground in World War II, and whose story provided the inspiration for the vignettes featuring the little girl in the film, mentioned above. Subtitled in English.


• Filming Zone (HD; 32:05) is a behind the scenes making of piece that has an optional commentary track featuring production designer Chris Oddy, costume designer Malgorzata Karpiuk, director of photography Lukas Zal, and editor Paul Watts.


• Sunbeams (HD; 2:45) is a kind of quasi-"music video" featuring the haunting prisoner composed song featured in the film.

Additionally the DigiPack sleeve encloses six art cards printed on heavy stock (which can make getting them out of the sleeve a bit of a challenge, as I discovered). The DigiPack has a photograph culled from the opening scene on the outside, with an infrared image underneath the disc on the inside panel. The entire DigiPack is itself enclosed in a slipbox.

The Zone of Interest 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's absolutely no question that The Zone of Interest is a sui generis "war film", but in my estimation it would have been even more powerful with a bit more explanation about at least some of the character motivations, and without some of the kind of patently weird stylistic choices, like the infrared imagery. Technical merits are first rate and the supplements very interesting. Recommended.