In German, the verb "scheinen" can mean either "to shine" or "to seem". And from the outside the beautiful light-colored house, the garden abunding in greens and flowers and the life the commander and his family made for themselves all "shine" to be idealistic. But one just cannot dettach this little haven from the hellish environment beyond the walls and the director along with the sound team make sure that we understand that all of this is a facade. The constant gun shooting, the yelling of people begging and crying for their life, the violently bloodish sky at night or a sudden fade from a pleasingly aesthetic red flower to a screen soaked in a bright red that is burning our eyes are just some of the methods used to tell the audience, more or less subtly, that attrocities are happening. The sound is in my opinion one of the main elements that breeds this "horror movie trying to masquerade as family-friendly film atmosphere" but the darkness of the inside of the house at night is also visually re-inforcing this mood. In the end, the abject character of the vital background just grows and grows until it is literally "spitted" and then it becomes the foreground (a little time travel happens), only to return for a short scene in which a character descends into the darkness of a stairway, down into the pitch black of history.
Review of The Zone of Interest
The Zone of Interest
(2023)
A seemingly shining yet horrific illustration of the "Schein vs Sein" concept
23 February 2024