“The Zone of Interest,” based on the late Martin Amis’ novel, is a mesmerizing cinematic experience. The film, directed by Jonathan Glazer, charts the banality of evil as Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller, from “Anatomy of a Fall”) live with their children in a house situated across from a concentration camp. Their lives are peppered by the sounds of gunfire and the crematoria, with people screaming and dogs barking. This only magnifies the horrors of what is happening. There are also cringe-inducing scenes of Hedwig trying on a fur coat or passing out clothes that Rudi brings home from work to the servants.
Johnnie Burn is the film’s sound designer and just received an Oscar nomination for his work on “The Zone of Interest.” (Technically, he is the supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer.) He explains, “[I'm] the guy who is in charge of the entire process of how the sound is captured for the movie, and how the sound is used throughout the movie to explore the narrative and emotional potential of the use of sound — even down to the way the sound is presented to you in the theater, the physicality of that. I’m a filmmaker who has to think like a director with a sound hat on.”
