With 2023’s The Zone of Interest, we find the winner of the Oscar for Best International Feature Film. Also nominated for Best Picture, it comes based on a 2014 historical novel from Martis Amis.

Set in 1943, Nazi SS Officer Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) commands the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. Despite this setting, Höss lives a fairly idyllic existence along with wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) and their five children.

As mass exterminations occur in their environment, Rudolf, Hedwig and the kids prosper. Conflict arises when Rudolf gets a transfer, a change that Hedwig protests.

By coincidence, I watched this 4K version of Zone only a few days after I screened a Blu-ray of 2008’s Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Like Zone, Boy told of a Nazi officer who took his family to live next to a concentration camp.

Though the movie doesn’t articulate this, the Pajamas novel used Auschwitz as the fictional story’s setting. Given that Zone also comes from the POV of a Nazi family, I can’t help but see obvious similarities between it and Zone.

Whereas Pajamas opted for over the top melodrama, Zone goes in precisely the opposite direction. It underplays matters to the point of near stagnancy.

Which I feel like I should appreciate – and I do to a certain degree. In a world where most movies tell how what to think and feel from start to finish, Zone tends to remain detached.

However, I think Zone leans too far in that direction. While it attempts a chilly view of its subjects, it lacks much real movement or drama.

Clearly writer/director Jonathan Glazer wants the movie to emphasize the banality of evil. As depicted here, the most horrifying actions get conducted by a seemingly normal and loving family man.

This feels much more chilling than any depiction of a cartoon psychopath would. Most films would lean in the “insane people doing insane things” direction, but Zone shows that apparently totally normal folks can commit the most atrocious deeds.

Strong and valid point that may be, Zone just doesn’t have anywhere else to go. For the most part, it gives us 105 minutes of contrast between the pleasant existence of the Höss clan and the ghastly reality literally in their backyard.

Again, I like that Zone doesn’t push for theatrics. We never even get a clear depiction of the events in the concentration camp.

Glazer assumes the viewer knows what happened there. Rather than show us, we get gentle auditory reminders – screams, gunfire – that remain in the background.

Really, the only active drama we find comes from arguments between Rudolf and Hedwig when his potential transfer arises. These scenes play in a somewhat ironic manner, as the debate between those characters seems wholly petty when contrasted with the horrors in their backyard.

This just continues to reinforce the “banality of evil” theme. Though the conflict between husband and wife offers some minor zing to an otherwise fairly stagnant tale, they don’t do much to add spark.

Really, Zone feels more like a movie to admire than to enjoy. While I respect aspects of the film, it tends to come across as pedantic and it makes it points clear so early in the narrative that it can become redundant.

The Zone of Interest appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. A native 4K product shot on 6K cameras, the image looked stunning.

Sharpness remained immaculate. At all times, the movie boasted excellent accuracy and delineation.

No signs of jagged edges or shimmering materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws failed to mar the proceedings.

Along with some splashes of amber, the movie’s palette mainly opted for a chilly blue-gray tone that the disc replicated in an appropriate manner. HDR added range to the hues.

Blacks seemed deep and tight, while low-light shots brought appealing clarity. Whites and contrast got a boost from HDR. Everything about this image satisfied.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the film’s Dolby Atmos mix lacked a lot of involvement. Indeed, much of the track tended to sound borderline monaural.

A lot of the audio emanated from the front center, with only sporadic exceptions. The infrequent uses of score spread around the spectrum, and occasional instances of the chaos at Auschwitz broadened across the front speakers.

Otherwise, this remained a restricted presentation. Not that I thought it failed to serve the story, but the movie didn’t do much with the soundscape.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that sounded natural and concise. Those periodic examples of music seemed vivid and full.

Effects tended to remain a background element, but they came across as accurate. Again, the soundtrack suited the movie and could benefit from its low-key nature, but it nonetheless gave us a very restricted affair.

Note that the film came with burned-in English subtitles. If you want to watch without text, you’re out of luck.

Three video programs accompany the film, and Aleksandra runs seven minutes, 40 seconds. It features an interview with Aleksandra Bystroń-Kołodziejczyk, the inspiration for one of the movie’s characters.

Bystroń-Kołodziejczyk – who died in 2016 - discusses her experiences during World War II. She offers emotional and compelling memories.

Filming Zone goes for 32 minutes, five seconds and offers footage from the shoot without interviews. Normally I enjoy material such as this, but the elements feel fairly banal and never become especially interesting.

We can watch “Zone” with or without commentary from production designer Chris Oddy, costume designer Malgorzata Karpiuk, director of photography Łukasz Żal and editor Paul Watts. All recorded their remarks separately in this non-screen-specific track.

All the participants add insights about their work on the film. They deliver strong notes and make the otherwise lackluster reel worthwhile.

Finally, Sunbrams lasts two minutes, 45 seconds and offers a performance of a song heard partly during the film. It doesn’t do much for me, honestly.

Also in the package, we get six Photo Cards with stills from the film. While inoffensive, these add nothing of real interest.

As much as I respect the filmmakers’ refusal to turn The Zone of Interest into cheap melodrama, the movie goes too far in the other direction. I respect its efforts but the final product comes across as too stagnant and it echoes its themes in a redundant manner. The 4K UHD boasts excellent visuals as well as decent audio and a few bonus features. I wanted to like Zone more than I did.