MOVIE · 2009

The White Ribbon

DramaMysteryThriller144 min

In a small Protestant village in northern Germany, a string of strange accidents and punishments begins to disturb the months leading up to World War I. Christian Friedel is the schoolteacher whose memories guide the story as suspicion gathers around the village's children, families, and rigid social order. Burghart Klaußner's pastor stands among the authority figures shaping daily life through discipline, shame, and obedience, while private cruelties surface behind respectable routines. Shot in black and white, Michael Haneke's film builds its mystery from the tensions inside the community rather than from any single crime.