Austrian director Michael Haneke’s White Ribbon was awarded this year’s Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival late on Sunday. 67-year-old Haneke’s film was praised by the jury and the media for its subtle portrayal of the roots of Nazi terror:

Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper on Monday called the film “the most anomalous, profound and alarming of the festival,” while France’s Le Figaro described it as “superb.” Shot in black-and-white, and set in a north German village on the eve of World War One, The White Ribbon explores how an oppressive upbringing can shape the way children act and think.

The director, whose last Cannes entry “Hidden” failed to grab the Golden Palm despite being the overwhelming favorite, insisted The White Ribbon was not just about the rise of fascism in Germany but of any kind of violent fanaticism.

But the biggest controversy in Cannes, the kind on which a film festival typically thrives, was Antichrist, Von Trier’s sexually explicit, graphically violent tale of a grieving couple whose stay in a remote cabin turns into a living hell.

Source: Reuters