Film Review: The White Ribbon

Director: Michael Haneke

Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke has never been renowned for making anything other than unsettling and harrowing film. Last year Amour won the award for Best Foreign Language film at the Oscars as a tale of one couple being torn apart by Alzheimers wowed critics, but in 2009 The White Ribbon was released and also nominated at the Oscars in the same category. Haneke explained the film as being about  "the origin of every type of terrorism, be it of political or religious nature."

The Pastor (Burghart Klaubner) with the children from the village

The film is set in the fictional German town of Eichwald in 1913, the town is a deeply protestant as the children are harshly taught religious values in confirmation classes by the local pastor. Whilst the women of the town are generally mistreated by the Baron (Ulrich Tukur) who employs most of the town and the doctor (Rainer Bock). The story is told by the local school teacher (Christian Friedel) who is looking back on his time in Eichwald as a strange set of events un-nerves the entire town before the First World War begins.

The actions of some of the powerful males in the town as they oppress the women and children is deeply troubling, very little of the abuse is actually physical but they are repressed and intimidated psychologically as the children are belittled whilst the women are left completely vulnerable without the males to feed them and house them. I genuinely think that Haneke didn't give many of the male characters actual names to imply that they could be anybody from any time and that this sort of behaviour isn't limited to this time or place. The films name comes from a story that the pastor tells saying that with his children he used to tie a white ribbon to them as a reminder of purity and innocence from which they have strayed.

The School teacher (Christian Friedel) and Eva (Leonie Benesch)

The tracking shots of the surrounding countryside are beautiful especially in the second act where we see the town in the middle of winter with thick snow on the ground. The beauty of nature cast against the ugly side of human nature. The acting in the film is simply fantastic, every character is entirely believable but the children are the most impressive. They are naturally curious but completely repressed from enjoying their naive childhood by the adults around them. Many believe that Haneke is a joyless and cynical filmmaker but in this instance he is simply humanistic and the ending is a far more truthful revelation than you could genuinely expect.

3.5/4 Harrowing and deeply upsetting parable