Why is the movie called The Zone of Interest? Symbolism and meaning explored 

The Zone of Interest, the 2023 historical drama, is loosely adapted from Martin Amis’s 2014 novel by the same name. Directed by Jonathan Glazer, it was produced in the United States, the United Kingdom and Poland. The story follows the life of Nazi Commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, who live in their dream house right next to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The movie received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

The movie's name, The Zone of Interest, is taken from the German word “Interessengebiet." The movie premiered on May 19, 2023, at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. It was nominated for several Golden Globes Awards, BAFTAs and the Academy Awards, and won quite a few.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the movie and advises reader’s discretion.

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The Zone of Interest meaning: What does the movie’s name depict?

The movie depicts the complicity of the powerful (Image via IMDb and A24)

As mentioned before, the movie is called The Zone of Interest, based on the German word – “Interessengebiet”, which was a term used to depict the restricted zone around the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Zone of Interest meaning translates into “an area of interest” in an exciting way, or inciting a lot of unusual ideas. It was used euphemistically by Nazi officers for the aforementioned Auschwitz area. This information about The Zone of Interest meaning was used to name the original book and the movie.

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The Zone of Interest: What is the movie about?

Based on the book by Martin Amis, The Zone of Interest shows the apathy and complicit attitude that Nazi Commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife show toward human misfortune. The plot focuses on Rudolf’s idyllic home, run perfectly by his wife Hedwig, located next to the camp.

While Rudolf takes his children to swim and fish, Hedwig tends to a beautiful garden and entertains guests. Servants, who may be muted prisoners, handle chores in the household. The household shows total apathy toward the gunshots and screams from the other side of the wall or toward the smoke from the furnaces.

Rudolf is promoted and transferred to Oranienberg while Hedwig chooses to stay back in her dream home. While Rudolf moves to Berlin, Hedwig invites her mother to come and stay. However, the aged lady is horrified by the presence of the camp and its sounds. She chooses to leave unannounced at night.

Rudolf receives appreciation at work and has a new operation at hand named after him. In the upcoming operation, Hungarian Jews were to be brought to Auschwitz camp to be killed, allowing Rudolf to reunite with his family.

As he gives Hedwig the good news over a phone call, he discusses his way of whiling time during a party in Berlin celebrating the new operation. He tells her that he has been trying to formulate the most efficient method of gassing a roomful of prisoners.

While leaving his Berlin office, Rudolf stops and retches. However, he finds it difficult to vomit out anything. The ending of The Zone of Interest shows two scenes. In one, Rudolf is seen recovering from his retching fit and climbing down a dark staircase until he is out of sight. On the other, a team of janitors are seen cleaning up the Auschwitz-Berkenau State Museum as part of the present-day routine before its opening to the public.

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The Zone of Interest expresses chilling details in a subtle way

The scenes and the sound effects create a contrasting message (Image via A24)

The movie shows minor details about the paradoxical comparisons. Double standards show up in many instances such as when Rudolf notices human remains in the river. He quickly takes the children out of the water, informs the camp personnel and chastises them.

In another scene, he is shown poring over the blueprints of a new crematorium in his cozy family room. Or when children of the Höss family play with toys that are confiscated from prisoners, Jewish children brought to the camp.

While the movie shows apathy and complicity to the extreme, the awareness brought to the audience is effective through hidden messages. The instance where Hedwig finds a gold lipstick in the pocket of one of the confiscated coats brings the contrast in the situations of the original owner and the current owner. It also points to the fact that materialistic greed can promote indifference.

However, the unsettling part is not just turning a blind eye toward human misfortune. Rudolf and his wife discuss methods of killing the masses. They plan and build around genocide and profit from it.

The Zone of Interest uses sound as a weapon to convey the message. While the frames do not always show the camp prisoners’ distress openly, there is no way for the audience to avoid it since what cannot be seen can be heard.

Sound designer Johnnie Burn. who was recently appreciated for his work in Poor Things, has used sound for powerful emotive effects. While the Commandant’s family is seen going about their everyday, normal lives in the foreground, the horrifying sounds from behind the camp walls fill the screen. The disconcerting impression throughout the movie comes from this contrast.

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Final thoughts on The Zone of Interest

The movie boasts of many nominations for its approach (Image via A24)

Glazer’s The Zone of Interest is a disturbing confession about complicity seen in one of the darkest genocides in world history. Cinematography, sound effects and bold performances have elevated the movie to an award-winning spectacle.

Distributed by A24 and Gutek Film, The Zone of Interest arrived in the US theaters on December 15, 2023. It is slated for release in the UK on February 2, 2024, and in Poland on February 9, 2024.