Idyll against the background of smoke of bodies burning in the camp. This is the most important premiere of this year

At the beginning of the film, Jonathan Glazer shows viewers the path they should follow when viewing his non-obvious work. The first frame of “Business Zone” is a thought-absorbing, deep black that does not disappear from our sight for long enough to disturb us, calm us down, and force us to be serious and focused. Apart from the mysterious nothingness, the director only treats us to incomprehensible sounds, thus sensitizing us to sound, which is of key importance in the film. A state that lasts a few seconds too long causes anxiety, nervousness and uncertainty that will stay with us until the end of the session.

Jonathan Glazer’s “Business Zone” deserves an Oscar [RECENZJA]

A family soon emerges from the darkness of the screen, spending time by the water. We meet Rudolf Hoss (Christian Friedel), the commandant of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) and their children. The next frames show us the carefree life of Germans living in a huge house with servants, a large garden and a greenhouse. We still try to ignore the screams in the background, the concrete wall surrounding the property and the swastikas on the clothes of the head of the family.

But soon the details fall into place. We begin to understand that Glazer’s film will convey the most important truths to us in understatements and details. This is a valuable way of narration in the era of high literalism used by contemporary filmmakers. Hedwig doesn’t need to read the letter from her mother, who only stayed one night to visit her daughter, to know what she wrote in it. We don’t have to see the faces of tortured camp prisoners to feel their growing pain and fear behind the walls of the commandant’s house.

“I’ve always dreamed of such a life,” says Hedwig in one of the scenes. In another, German children are carefree playing by the pool. The idyll continues against the background of smoke rising from bodies burned in the camp. And although throughout the entire film, regardless of whether the creators show us the events of the day or night, we hear people screaming, the noise of the furnace and shots in the distance – no one pays attention to them. It is a clear metaphor for how everyday suffering and cruelty turns into an insignificant background.

It is the contrasts and intentional omissions that capture the imagination most strongly here. Any film that tries to bring viewers even a little closer to what was happening on the other side of the concentration camp wall teeters on the edge of honesty. The creators’ intentions are most often right, but the tools are insufficient. As a result, touching productions such as “Life is Beautiful” or “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” are created, but similar works are increasingly becoming the subject of discussion. Is some kind of romanticization (even partial and subtle) of the Holocaust fair to the victims? Isn’t focusing on stories that give hope a smoothing over of reality and drowning out the guilt that weighs on all of humanity?

Only Jonathan Glazer could make a movie like this

Only Glazer, who is not afraid of risk, could make a film like “Business Zone”. The director proved his courage and unconventional approach to storytelling in 2013 with “Under the Skin”, which divided sci-fi connoisseurs. The creator’s avoidance of easy solutions impresses some and repels others, but it must be admitted that the director, paying tribute to the victims of the Holocaust, attempted something that would not even occur to most people.

The creator decided not to dehumanize the Nazis. He showed that cruelty is in human nature, and those responsible for the Holocaust were no different from us. They loved animals, family, dreamed of a beautiful house and planned holidays. It is a warning and proof that evil lurks in each of us. “This is what people did to people” – screams every scene in “Business Zone”. Glazer does not allow the viewer to feel relief or to distance himself from the criminals, who in many narratives have become a separate species of subhuman. And this is another strength of this film.

Glazer created a work that will never be forgotten. Just as the great crime of the Holocaust should never be forgotten. This is not another transparent production that forces viewers to feel sympathy, moralizes and flaunts school phrases. This is a doubly important film considering the times in which it was made. It gives hope that the Holocaust will remain a warning for people, not an instruction. The production can be seen in Polish cinemas from March 8.