Horror Without Seeing Horror

 The Zone of Interest (2023) focus on a life of a German family that happens to belong to one of most effective mass murdered of the Third Reich, the Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (1901 – 1947). There has been a movie about him earlier Aus Einem deutchen Leben (1977) with suberb Götz George playing the leading role.

This movie, however is about the family that lives right next to Auschwitz camp, so close that the wall that surrounds family's idyllic art–deco house and its garden, allows us to see the upper parts of the consentration camp, watchtower with a guards pacing inside it and occasionally at night time we see a chimney of a crematorium spew red flames. Camera's are positioned still or move slowly on a dolly, thus making view like we are bystanders on their garden, the camp and its horrors looming above one-third's of focal plane.

That is exactly what this movie is about. Not seeing things that we already know. And because we know too damn well what is happening on the other side of the wall makes watching the happy family life so banal to us. We see Rudolf Höss, played by singer and actor Christian Friedel (Elser, Babylon Berlin) only doing his work at the phone or on the conference room, and observing daily horrors of the camp, and even then the we only see his face. The family is totally ignorant about the horrors behind the wall, they don't ever mention about those. He knows exactly what is happening, his wife doesn't care and children only suspect. See no evil, speak no evil.

But they and we hear evil. There are shouts and gunfire. Industrial level of extermination makes noise. We only see some selected Jews tending house and garden. One of them spreads ash on a garden... is it human? Once Rudolf and his son's idyllic river trip is interrupted by a flow of grey ash.  

At the end of movie, we see Auschwitz as it is today, as a museum where workers are vacuming and cleaning places for visitor's. According to film critic A.A. Dowd this means that the camp is still a place of work, albeit being a place of conservation instead of destruction. We don't watch these kind of movies to enjoy, we watch them to remind us for evil that can make itself look like it isn't evil at all. 

Never forget!

Film4 Productions ©

 

Museum or an Amusement Park

 In his book The Birth of the Museum (1995) Tony Bennett (not the singer) compares Australian theme park Timbertown as some kind of Disneyland. Both are enclosed areas with similar means to take visitors money. Timbertown being however a some kind of museum, presenting Australia's past. Disneyland has its walking mascots while Timbertown has personnel dressed on period costumes and presenting the life in park's manial historical chores like blacksmith or operating the train that just travels its enclosed loops inside the park, just like in Disneyland. 

That made me think about some museums, like Finland's outdoor museums where the buildings are collected one here other there. Like Bennett states, buildings are too close to each other to be credible image of the past. This of course cannot be helped, it is what it is. Bennett also claims that some museums that are presenting the life of lower classes do it by some bourgeoise romantic view of the past, forgetting all the misery and pain. Sometimes the museum simply dismiss the lower classes to a supporting role to serve the elite. 

Museum is however an institute to make money, it simply won't cope without. If an exhibition is held, lets say on an old castle, you have to select objects and props that suits the old castle, It is not neutral place for any kind of display. And this, sadly makes that castle a some sort of amusement park.