The Zone Of Interest: “You can shut your eyes but you can’t shut your ears”

By Emiliano Rodríguez Nuesch and María Morena Vicente

The massive horror of the Holocaust has been told in very different ways, generating social consciousness around one of the darkest times in the history of humanity. Why is “The Zone Of Interest” any different? 

The film chronicles the mundane existence of a Nazi family living next to the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, while more than a million people are being murdered just over the garden wall. It’s centered on Auschwitz, yet you never get to see it. Instead you mostly watch domestic scenes from a German commander’s family, as they eat, play, swim, and tend to the garden. 

“That wall is a manifestation for me of how we compartmentalize the suffering of others — and normalize the suffering of others, to some extent — in order to protect and preserve our own comfort and security,” movie director, Glazer, told CNN. 

Another element that makes the film unique is that behind those family scenes, you can hear the sounds of horror coming from over the wall. Through sound, this Oscar-nominated movie conveyed the horrors of the Holocaust without ever showing violence. Still, it provoked disturbing feelings by banalizing and normalizing the evil.

How can the creative use of sound help break our numbing towards atrocities? Let’s look at this scene from the movie. While we contemplate the colorful flowers of the family garden, an extremely real and disturbing soundtrack is playing in the background. The blossom is happening right next to death, horror and suffering. 

The contrast between the quiet garden and the audio effects implies how humans can indeed maintain a certain distance and look away from horrors, viewing them indirectly or just completely ignoring them. But in the words of sound designer Johnnie Burn: “You can shut your eyes, but you can’t shut your ears”.

The sound design and production process involved the collection of real sounds from the streets of Europe, repurposing them for a soundscape of cruelty happening just out of view. The compiled noises were based on specific research of what could be heard in and around the camp, from the birds on the Sola river to the electric fence. Also, some of the voices on the film’s soundscape included quotes from survivor testimony who attempted to escape the camp.

While “The Zone of Interest” is, on the surface, a movie about the Holocaust, director Glazer and producer James Wilson have said its message remains urgent as ever and it’s related to other human atrocities that are happening in the world right now. Therefore, it is key to understand the Habituation phenomena and why we tend to overlook horrors.

At its core, Glazer says, “The Zone of Interest” is about what we choose to pay attention to — and what we’re able to ignore. “It’s not saying, ‘Look at what they did,’” he said. “It’s saying, ‘Look at what we do.’” He also pointed out its contemporary relevance. “For me,” he told the Guardian, “this is not a film about the past. It’s trying to be about now, and about us and our similarity to the perpetrators, not our similarity to the victims.”

Learn more about the symbolism, the message and a powerful speech by Glazer.