White Ribbon

Austria-Germany-France-Italy, 2009, col., Dir.: Michael Haneke, Scr.: Michael Haneke, Cin.: Christian Berger. Ed.: Monika Willi. Cast:. Prod.: Michael Katz, Dur.: 144΄.

From July, 1913 to the outbreak of World War I, a series of incidents take place in a German village. A horse trips on a wire and throws the rider; the local baron’s son is hung upside down in a mill; parents slap and bully their children; a man is cruel to his long-suffering lover. People disappear. A callow teacher, who courts a nanny in the baron’s household, narrates the story and tries to investigate the connections among these accidents and crimes. What is foreshadowed? Are the children holy innocents? God may be in His heaven, but all is not right with the world; the center cannot hold.

Michael Haneke
23/3/1942, Munich, Germany
Der siebente Kontinent (1989), Benny’s Video (1992), Funny Games (1997), Code inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages (2000), La pianiste (2001), Le temps du loup (2003), Caché (2005).