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 76th Cannes 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.
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).
Inspired by the true story of a family drama that shook Tunisia in 2014: that of Olfa Hamrouni and her 4 daughters, two of whom were indoctrinated by ISIS, director Kaouther Ben Hania dazzled the Croisette with her film ‘‘Olfa and her daughters’’ which brilliantly dissects the process of indoctrination through which the Islamists operate their brainwashing on socially and psychologically fragile people.
Thanks to a thrilling narration, halfway between documentary and fiction, this film, which is competing for the Palme d’Or, has managed the feat of establishing a captivating game of mirrors between the real people of Olfa and his girls and their fictional screen doubles.
Greatly forgotten on the prize list of the 76th Cannes Film Festival, Nanni Moretti has once again conquered the Croisette, with a poignant work tinged with humor and melancholy through which he casts a worried and sarcastic look at today’s cinema.
Greatly forgotten on the prize list of the 76th Cannes Film Festival, Nanni Moretti has once again conquered the Croisette, with a poignant work tinged with humor and melancholy through which he casts a worried and sarcastic look at today’s cinema.
After a six-year absence and seventeen years of sobriety (feigned or real?), the great Finnish master of zany comedy, Aki Kaurismäki, is back in the footsteps of his famous “losers’ trilogy” (“Drifting Clouds” – 1996 , “The Man Without a Past” – 2002 , “Lights in the Dusk” – 2006). Presented in the Official Competition, his latest opus “Fallen Leaves” won the Jury Prize and dazzled the Croisette with its offbeat, minimalist aesthetic.
Based on the true story of a family tragedy that shook Tunisia in 2014: that of Olfa Hamrouni and her 4 daughters, two of whom were indoctrinated by ISIS, Kaouther Ben Hania’s “Olfa’s Daughters” brilliantly and insightfully dissects the indoctrination process through which Islamists brainwash the socially and psychologically fragile.
After 6 years of absence and 17 years of sobriety, the Finnish master Aki Kauriosmaki retraces the steps of his famous ‘‘trilogy of the losers’’ (‘‘Drifting Clouds’’ – 1996 , ‘‘The Man Without a Past’’ – 2002 , ‘‘Lights in the Dusk’’ – 2006). He is competing for the Palme d’Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival with ‘‘Fallen Leaves’’, a poignant and melancholic masterpiece about the shattered destiny of two marginalized people who are desperately trying to sketch out a love story in which the burlesque desputes it to the tragic.
