‘The Zone of Interest,’ ‘The Settlers’ Score Fipresci Awards at Cannes

Jonathan Glazers The Zone of Interest has scored a Fipresci award in Cannes.

The jury of the International Federation of Film Critics praised the film for its formal radicality, the complexity of the sound and score, and its contrast between the invisible atrocities behind the wall and a supposed paradise, Fipresci stated on Saturday.

By presenting the horror as something usual, and using everyday-like dialogues, its a reflection on ignorance as a disease that connects the past with the present.

Glazers take on a Nazi family living next door to Auschwitz andenjoyingit loosely based on the novel by Martin Amis, who tragically passed away on May 19, just before the premiere has been getting rave reviews at the French festival, becoming one of the frontrunners for this years Palme dOr.

Christian Friedel stars as real-life SS officer Rudolf Hss, joined by Sandra Hller playing his wife, Hedwig.

Its a remarkable film chilling and profound, meditative and immersive, a movie that holds human darkness up to the light and examines it as if under a microscope, wroteVarietys Owen Gleiberman.

In a sense, its a movie that plays off our voyeurism, our curiosity to see the unseeable. Yet it does so with a bracing originality.

A co-production between U.S., U.K. and Poland with House Productions, Film4 and Extreme Emotions on board The Zone of Interest is an A24 release.

Pawe Pawlikowskis regular collaborator ukasz al lensed the film, while Mica Levi was responsible for the unnerving soundtrack, called by Gleiberman eerie in the extreme.

Glazer is also behind Sexy Beast, Birth and, more recently, 2013 sci-fi curio starring Scarlett Johansson, Under the Skin.

The Settlers Courtesy of Quijote Films Venturing outside Cannes official selection, the jurors also prized Un Certain Regard Western The Settlers by Felipe Glvez Haberle, awarded due to its skillful storytelling, which sheds light on significant and often overlooked socio-political conflicts inherent in the history of Latin American colonization, and its distinct approach to its theme through its filmmaking style.

The film, set in 1901, focuses on three men hired by a Spanish landowner to mark out his property. And, if needed, to get rid of the Indigenous tribes that still call it home.

I love to be controversial, the director toldVarietyearlier thisweek.If something is controversial, its a good sign. I am trying to provoke with my film, because this conversation is far from over.

Frances MK2 handles international sales.

Finally, the jury Thomas Abeltshauser, Olivier Bachelard, Constant Carbonnelle, Lon Cattan, Andrea Crozzoli, Youngmee Hwang, Karen Krizanovich and Nicols Medina, presided over by Hsin Wang spotlighted one more film: Power Alley.

Brazils Lillah Hallas feature debut sold by M-Appeal and shown in Critics Week takes on illegal abortion as talented volleyball player Sofia suddenly finds herself pregnant.

The conflict of [the film] deeply affects our protagonist personally, but that does not make it an individual drama only, said Halla.

After all, its not only about desiring. Its about the (non-) annihilation of ones desires. But Sofias luck is that, beyond being determined, she is no longer alone.

Power Alley is produced by Brazils Arissas and Manjerico Filmes, In Vivo Films in France and Cimarrn Cine in Uruguay.

Combined with compelling performances, vibrant editing, engaging music and a thrilling narrative, this film is making the point that abortion rights are human rights, the jury summed up.

Power Alley Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival