Watch & Review Gatherings: “Confronting the Stories: Breaking Points in Cinema”
Prepared and Presented by: Cahide Ezgi Yıldız & Ezgi Emel
In this series, we explore the overlooked corners of cinema, as well as the dimensions of human experience that often remain unseen or difficult to confront, through the lenses of psychoanalysis, philosophy, and sociology. We aim to offer participants new perspectives that lie beneath images. Led by Dr. Cahide Ezgi Yıldız and writer-publisher Ezgi Emel, each session focuses on a single film, turning our attention not only to what is told, but also to what remains unspoken, and to the possibilities that emerge beyond the surface.
In this session, we will open a collective space for discussion around the film The Zone of Interest (2023), which strikingly portrays the banality of evil and collective denial.
Film: “The Zone of Interest”
England, Poland, USA, 2023, German, Polish, Yiddish with Turkish Subtitles, 105’
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Film Screening: 20.30 - 22.15
Discussion and Analysis: 22.30 - 23.15
Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest (2023) reveals collective denial and the banality of evil through the everyday life of the Höss family, who live in comfort beside Auschwitz while turning a blind eye to the screams and smoke rising just beyond their garden wall. Rather than depicting horror directly, the film constructs an atmosphere of latent tension through its extraordinary sound design and static camera compositions. This approach distances the viewer from explicit representations of violence. By focusing on the unsettling contrast between a sterilized domestic life and the industrialized death unfolding just beyond the wall, it examines with remarkable cinematic precision humanity’s capacity for indifference in the face of evil and the psychological divisions that sustain it.
* The event is ticketed. The ticket price is 250 TL per person. The ticket includes the film screening, the talk, 1 drink, and 1 refreshment. You can access the purchase link via the "Buy Ticket" button on the page. The purchase link will open 1 week before the event date (07.08.2026), and the "Buy Ticket" button will become visible.
* The event is intended for participants aged 18 and older. Ticket sales are available exclusively to audiences aged 18 and older.