Many films dedicated to Nazi horror and the Holocaust have been welcomed, celebrated and rewarded by the Cannes Film Festival. There was, in particular, the tragicomic ‘‘Life is Beautiful’’ by Roberto Benigni (Grand Prix – 1997), the moving and masterful ‘‘The Pianist’’ by Roman Polanski (Palme d’Or – 2002 ), the dark and poignant ‘‘White Ribbon’’ by Michael Haneke (Palme d’Or – 2009) and the atypical and dazzling ‘‘The son of Saul’’ by Laszlo Nemes (Grand Prix – 2015).

These major and necessary movies have all faced the same and thorny problem: how to evoke Holocaust without showing its unbearable horror? And of all the approaches adopted or considered, that of ‘‘The Zone of Interest’’ by Jonathan Glazer – which has just won the Grand Prix at the 76^thCannes Film Festival – is by far the most trying: the British filmmaker has the singular and confusing choice to film Auschwitz from the adjacent house of Nazi commander Rudolf Höss, who ran the terrible camp from May 1940 to December 1943, and again from May to September 1944.

From the pretty house – where this Nazi criminal led a most peaceful family life, tenderly caring for his children and tending with extreme care the roses in his garden – all you can see of the terrifying death camp are a few chimneys of gas chambers. And we hear of the horror that unfolds there only vague nocturnal cries that we guess to be those of fugitives being shot down or drowning in the river.