--- description: In addressing Gaza, 'The Zone of Interest' director said what no one else dared to say. title: Jonathan Glazer Said What No One Else Dared to Say image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b23dfecfedae320/698a494c4ee262674431cbd0/GettyImages-2074465679.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Oscars](/tag/oscars/) ## Oscars Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # _The Zone of Interest_ Oscar Winner Jonathan Glazer Said What No One Else Dared to Say ## Video: See All the Best Looks From the 2024 Oscars Red Carpet [Watch (HLS stream): See All the Best Looks From the 2024 Oscars Red Carpet](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Epr1Uva2.m3u8) (3:23)  _Published 2024-03-11. Stars and creators gathered on the red carpet Sunday for Hollywood’s biggest night, the Academy Awards._  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close TV Critic Mar 11, 2024 1:47 PM CUT  Jonathan Glazer accepts the Best International Feature Film award for The Zone of Interest during the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024. Jonathan Glazer accepts the Best International Feature Film award for The Zone of Interest during the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024.Kevin Winter—Getty Images  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close TV Critic Mar 11, 2024 1:47 PM CUT Sometime between [John Cena’s nude tribute to costume design](https://time.com/6899481/john-cena-nude-oscars-2024/ "undefined") and Emily Blunt’s playful scolding of [Ryan Gosling](https://time.com/6898993/ryan-gosling-oscars-im-just-ken-barbie/ "undefined") for “Kensplaining,” at Sunday’s [96th Academy Awards](https://time.com/6899349/oscars-2024-recap/ "undefined"), Jonathan Glazer accepted the Best International Feature Oscar for [_The Zone of Interest_](https://time.com/6281554/the-zone-of-interest-review/ "undefined"). “All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present—not to say ‘look what they did then’; rather, look what we do now,’” said the writer and director of the German-language British production, in which a Nazi commandant and his family lead unbothered lives next door to the unspeakable horrors of Auschwitz. “Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst… Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many people, whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel, or the ongoing attack on Gaza.” Glazer posed a question to the telecast's global audience: “How do we resist?” His was not the only political statement made on the Oscars stage this year. From [Jimmy Kimmel](https://time.com/6899127/oscars-2024-monologue-jimmy-kimmel/ "undefined")’s message of support for entertainment unions, interspersed throughout a painstakingly safe opening monologue, to _20 Days in Mariupol_ writer-director Mstyslav Chernov’s emotional appeal for Ukraine, many of the event’s participants had current events on their minds. Yet only Glazer explicitly addressed the bloodshed in Gaza and Israel—a devastating conflict that has dominated global headlines for the past five months but whose rights, wrongs, and collateral damage are a rare subject of disagreement, best avoided in public, within a predominantly liberal industry. His speech was a moment of moral courage inextricably intertwined with his film’s urgent message. _The Zone of Interest_ is, as Glazer noted, a portrait of dehumanization taken to a genocidal extreme. Everyone knows (even if a vocal minority, still in thrall to Nazism, continues to deny) what happened within the walls of German concentration camps. Images of gas chambers, mass graves, and emaciated bodies in striped uniforms have become disturbingly familiar reminders of the suffering millions of Jews and other outsiders endured under Hitler's Third Reich. Each year brings another crop of movies and [TV shows](https://time.com/6330434/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-review-netflix/ "undefined") featuring cartoonishly evil Nazi villains. Yet _The Zone of Interest_ flips perspectives to the other side of the mirror that is dehumanization.It illustrates how numbness to the torture, starvation, and death of innocent people you’ve convinced yourself are less than human turns even the most passive enablers of that violence into monsters. The more normal Commander Rudolf Höss’ (Christian Friedel) family life seems, the more ghastly it becomes. So it stands to reason that Glazer would use a stage where [Vanessa Redgrave expressed similar sentiments](https://aaspeechesdb.oscars.org/link/050-4/ "undefined") in 1978—and on which victors regularly opine, to mixed reviews, on contentious issues ranging from [gender inequity to racism to war](https://time.com/6837668/best-oscar-speeches/ "undefined")—to condemn an ongoing Israeli bombardment that has already cost [more than 30,000 Palestinians](https://www.npr.org/2024/02/29/1234159514/gaza-death-toll-30000-palestinians-israel-hamas-war "undefined") their lives as well as Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 massacre. The filmmaker’s reference to an occupation that predates the current outburst of violence by decades grounded his assessment in history, in the same way that _The Zone of Interest_ uses the atrocities of the past to speak to a present that has yet to learn the Holocaust’s lessons. Glazer was taking a real risk by speaking up for Palestinians on Hollywood’s biggest stage. In November, Susan Sarandon was dropped by her talent agency and actress Melissa Barrera was fired from a role in _Scream VII_ for [expressing certain pro-Palestinian views](https://time.com/6338695/melissa-barrera-fired-susan-sarandon-israel-hamas-war-hollywood/ "undefined"). On social media, a [number](https://twitter.com/bungarsargon/status/1767002321051955202 "undefined") of prominent [Israel hawks](https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1767155366456946900 "undefined") are already [attacking Glazer](https://twitter.com/jpodhoretz/status/1766983555291193813 "undefined") and [misrepresenting his speech](https://twitter.com/FoxmanAbraham/status/1766998200135651487 "undefined") as a renunciation of his Jewish identity. But if he hadn’t read his deliberate, pre-written statement, the entire telecast might well have gone on as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening in the Middle East. While high-profile attendees including Mark Ruffalo, Billie Eilish, and Ramy Youssef [wore Artists4Ceasefire pins](https://time.com/6899526/oscars-2024-red-pins-gaza-ceasefire/ "undefined"), ABC’s red carpet interviewers ignored them. (“We’re calling for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza. We’re calling for peace and lasting justice for the people of Palestine,” [Youssef explained to _Variety_](https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1766949617143361708 "undefined").) Cillian Murphy, accepting the Best Actor award for portraying a man who created the world's most lethal weapon of mass dehumanization, made a conspicuously vague call for peace: “For better or for worse, we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world,” he said. “I’d like to dedicate this to the peacemakers.” For as long as popular artists have been speaking their minds at awards-show podiums, a contingent of viewers and pundits has admonished them to keep politics out of what is supposed to be a fun night. The thing is, politics are at the core of the art that the Oscars (and all entertainment awards) exist to celebrate. Even _Barbie_ is political. So there’s certainly no separating the images of war conjured by _Oppenheimer_ and _20 Days in Mariupol_ and _The Zone of Interest_ from the carnage in Gaza. 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