The Hösses have the ideal life – family, friends, wealth, and the house of their dreams. There’s just one small detail to note. Rudolf Höss has a job just down the street, as commander of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

 A film that stirred up controversy months before distribution, “The Zone of Interest” finally received a wide distribution in theaters across America on Feb. 2.

Writer and director Jonathan Glazer bought the rights to adapt the novel version of “The Zone of Interest”, over a decade ago, and before the book had even been released. However, a series of rewrites, delays, a pandemic, and narrative restructuring led to a lengthy production process, to the point that the finished film shares little in common with its acclaimed source material. 

At first glance, “The Zone of Interest” is seemingly quaint, a mundane story of two parents raising their five kids in a suburban dream house. The father takes them swimming, the kids go to school, and both parents read the younger ones bedtime stories. The story doesn’t deviate from this concept; the vast majority of the film’s plot starts and ends there. 

The only real difference is that the setting is 1943 in German occupied Poland, and the house is located just outside Auschwitz.

Now “The Zone of Interest” isn’t a movie for everyone. It’s bleak, depressing, and slow paced. But for those who can sit through a film with this subject matter and tone, it’s a worthwhile watch. 

One thing to note is the film’s sound design, and it’s brilliance and completely unique factor, with a movie hidden within the movie. It conveys what the visuals don’t; the horror of Auschwitz. The audience sporadically hears the booming sounds of gunshots, screaming, and machinery, while seeing the characters of the film filter it out entirely, showcasing their blissful ignorance of events happening around them.

The biggest problem with the film, and something that makes it feel unapproachable to many is the lack of a coherent plot. The characters’ circumstances change slightly at around the halfway point, but the overall narrative is pretty static. It’s done with purpose, which is respectable, but 107 minutes where very little new things happen is hard to sell to most.

The most intriguing part of “The Zone of Interest” is its perspective on complicity, and how that reflects back onto modern society. The Hösses live very similarly to regular families of the current day. Apart from Rudolph Höss himself, they are not closely involved in the Holocaust, but instead, passive observers who do nothing but support the camp outright. When the atrocities committed against civilians, such as the current events of Palestinians, are readily visible on everyone’s phone screens. It begs the question: aren’t the people of today complicit as well?

Overall, “The Zone of Interest” is a difficult watch, but a worthwhile one. Barring the lack of a narrative, the sound design and thematic complexity are what elevate this film over just being a generic, Oscar-type biopic.