Zone of Interest, a film essay by Sean Miguel Maher

Zone of Interest ends with a man walking down stairs. An S.S Officer. It is presented simply but the area is so bare. So specifically made. The black and white colors. Something is deeply wrong. Then we see a shot of women cleaning the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. In rooms there are piles and piles of shoes of various sizes. It lasts maybe a few minutes. Then we go back to the man walking downstairs. The S.S officer. There is a sense of the present being present in the past. Maybe he can hear what is happening in the future. It also reminds us that this is all being filmed contemporaneously. In this scene all the events of the film are a fragile thing in history. This surreal event that took place, the killing of millions of Jewish people, is both the product of government and military. That soon this would end. Things cannot be undone but time marches on.

I wonder who would be this man in Israel. In the present there are soldiers and government men trying to displace and kill the people of Palestine. It has been happening since the 1940’s. In Gaza there have been bombings of hospitals and civilian populations by Israel. Israel has bombed an Iranian embassy and threatens the safety of the whole world and chooses to be a belligerent occupier at the same time. I am afraid if Israel doesn’t show restraint that time will cease for us, not just the people living in Gaza. That we will all be forgotten to time. I recently had an art show for my interactive media major and I wonder how long will any of this matter and if it really does. Any superpower could make the decision to end it all for all of us. Germany perpetrated a holocaust. Israel might spark a nuclear holocaust. And time will march on.