Seeing Through a Monster’s Eyes

I have been trying to write something about The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning film about Rudolph Höss (played by Christian Friedel), the commandant at Auschwitz, for months, ever since I saw it for the first time. That was on October 13, 2023, less than a week after brutal massacre of Israelis perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. I walked into the screening at the New York Film Festival with more than a little trepidation. Was a film about one of the most diligent perpetrators of the Holocaust really what I wanted to see at such a time?