Where I belong ( Fritz Urschitz)

I was in line for a sundance brunch. I was talking to a much younger man. Dan. he spoke fondly of the Zone of interest. Being fond is not the right word, but it was good. It hit me then and there. I’m 48; I know people from the war. Seeing where I belong, I recognised people from its story. I knew a German family. I was friends with Jakob from school. My mum’s best friend from when I was a child until my late teens was a woman who had fled to England. I was too young to share their stories, but they were present. I even knew a railway child. She was my childminder in primary school. In a society where shouting ‘OK, Boomer’ is seen as a right. It’s not been that way for many of those who came before. And this film explores that with great sensitivity and empathy.

Following Rosemarie’s life and responsibilities, at first glance, we have the life of any young woman making their way in the 1950s. The pub, dance halls and training to be a secretary, but her background and duties to her father are an expressionist shadow of what has been lost or even denied from her home and legacy. 

I initally thought it was a German film shot on location in England. The angles, lighting, sound, and sensibilities evoke expressionist cinema and are the proper infusion. A migrant perspective is not all exposition; it’s in the paradigm and lived experience that filters our perspectives. Informed now it was in fact an Austrian production with many scenes filmed in Vienna, its testamony to the dedication of the scenes I was invested in and niave.

It was a weird experience watching this film. First, I was a child in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I was told that Britain saved everyone, that Churchill practically gallops up big Ben and pulls his trousers down and blows away all the Nazis with the strength of his farts. But people were ruined, damaged, and shocked. Life was as much about existence and survival as anything. This filters down generationally. As we see, the resolution and resilience formed in Rosemarie, outgrowing her father and lover, and her position is a stance of growth and determination. One thing that makes me think very much about where it is and how the last few scenes are is how my mothers began.

It’s a low-key piece and some may be deterred by the longer sections within it. But ultimately they are pauses for reflection that one should take. Seek it out.