Marie Gicquel, edited by Alexandre Dalifard / Photo credit: VICTOR BOYKO / GETTY IMAGES EUROPE / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP 4:00 p.m., January 31, 2024

Grand Prize of the jury at the last Cannes Film Festival, the film “The zone of interest” by Jonathan Glazer hits the big screens this Wednesday in France. This feature film, shot in German, tells the daily life of the family of the commander of Auschwitz, living on the outskirts of the concentration camps. 

Close-up on one of the shocking films of the last Cannes Film Festival. Grand Jury Prize on the Croisette, the film

The Zone of Interest

by Jonathan Glazer is the adaptation of a novel which tells the daily life of a family living on the outskirts of the Auschwitz camps. Chilling and shot in German, this film is to be enjoyed as a cinematic experience. 

A powerful and humbling achievement

Since the last Cannes Film Festival, this film has been eagerly awaited. Disturbing, terrifying and with a confusing soundtrack, this film has achieved the feat of describing the horror of Auschwitz without ever showing the inside of the camps. We remain glued to our chairs, stunned, when we learn that we are going to follow the family life of the commander of Auschwitz. A paradoxically peaceful family life in this house with a lush garden. 

A villa with the camp in the background. The terrible fate of the Jews is only suggested by the black smoke escaping from the chimneys, by gunfire or by the belongings of the detainees collected by the family like fur coats. This area of ​​interest, the title of the film, was the expression used by the Nazis to describe the surroundings of the Auschwitz camp. And, for now, here we are. The film was also shot there, right next to the camp. A wish from the director who insisted on it. 

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“I wanted to film in Poland since the story is in this country. We tried to film elsewhere in Poland, but no, we were always pushed to return to Auschwitz,” he tells Europe. 1. In the casting, the German actress Sandra Hüller, who also plays in

Anatomy of a Fall

. A masterful mother without any emotion in the face of the tragedy playing out just behind her garden wall. This achievement is powerful and humble, without sensationalism, which narrowly missed the Palme d'Or. Do not miss it.