White Ribbon

AUSTRIA / GERMANY / FRANCE / ITALY director: Michael Haneke 2009 / 144 min. German-French-Italian version with Czech subtitles cast: Christian Friedel, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur, Ursina Lardi, Burghart Klaußner, Maria-Victoria Dragus, Rainer Bock

A mysterious history of peculiar events comes to life in a story told by a village school teacher, who used to work in a North German village back in the years before the WWI. It all started one hot summer day, when the only doctor in the area seriously hurt himself in a horse riding accident. Shortly thereafter, the baron’s son was found in front of the castle door severely beaten. The number of seemingly unwarranted cases of violence is increasing and the villagers stop trusting each other, which increases the friction. The crust of social hierarchy and the tough Protestant upbringing begins to crack and releases suppressed conflicts between the rich and the poor, the violated servants and their masters, as well as the children and their cruel parents. It’s too late when everyone realizes that the evil comes from within themselves.