Zone of Interest (2023)

This is a harrowing movie. My spouse, who was reluctantly dragged to watch this with me in a theater, likened this to Hannah Arendt’s concept of the banality of evil. She described Adolph Eichmann as an ordinary, rather bland bureaucrat, who, in her words, was ‘neither perverted nor sadistic’ but ‘terrifyingly normal’ . She contends that he acted without any motive other than to diligently advance his career in the Nazi bureaucracy. This seems to fit this movie like a glove. We watch the Rudolf Hoss family go about their lives literally next door to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. Their back fence is the wall around the camp, and throughout the movie, the sounds of those who meet their death there provide the backdrop against which they live. And live they do—they go to school, horseback ride, entertain guests—all with the help of what are essentially enslaved Jews who will then be killed—but not only do they thrive in this environment, they feel lucky to have elevated themselves in such a way. It is thoroughly disgusting and terrifyingly obvious that this is what white supremacy looks like, both then and now.