The White Ribbon

classified 15 S

part of Complicit: A Michael Haneke Season on 35mm

Film

Sun 24 Aug 14:00

Director
Michael Haneke
Cast
Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch
Details
144 mins, Subtitled, 2009, Germany
Primary language
German, Italian

Themes of guilt and denial haunt this riveting Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece by Michael Haneke.

In a village in Protestant northern Germany on the eve of World War I, a series of unsettling and distressing incidents take place. Taken together, they assume the character of a ritual in which punishment and torture dominate. But the identity of the perpetrators remains a mystery. A schoolteacher who has observed the unfolding incidents investigates and, little by little, discovers the disturbing truth.

Are we being asked to consider whether these events heralded something that would explode years later with the rise of Nazi Germany? Did these events contain the germs of the tragedies that followed? Haneke has never been one to give us answers, often leaving us with more questions.

The White Ribbon is presented on 35mm film.


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