The White Ribbon review

 Number 508 on the top 1000 films of all time is Michael Haneke's 2009 German mystery-drama 'The White Ribbon.'

The White Ribbon is set in the fictional village of Eichwald, Northern Germany, in the eve of World War One. Here a number of strange events occur including a farmer's wife dying in mysterious circumstances, the son of the local wealthy landowner being kidnapped and tortured, as well as a barn burning down. The village's school teacher (Christian Friedel) begins to suspect the village's children are behind everything.

This might have just been me, but the White Ribbon struck me as an unintentional homage to the German Expressionist films of old. Granted it lacked the surreal landscapes that Fritz Lang popularised, but it did have that overwhelming sense of dread. Plus, there was a very bleak mystery to be solved.

Yet there was something deeply unsatisfactory about the film. Despite how the school teacher has his suspicions about the village children, nothing is ever confirmed or denied either way. Of course that's life and sometimes you never find out the answers to your questions. However, when you have a mystery as great as this, you would expect at least some attempt at an explanation.

Instead when the school leader raises his concerns to the local priest and village's moral leader (Burghurt Klausner) he is quickly ran out of town. Some suspect the town's doctor, but the film ends with no satisfactory answers. All these strange events become strange stories.

Chances are we'll never know the real reason behind the mystery. I imagine that Haneke is one of those directors who like to leave it up to their audiences to decide. I guess it makes sense that the children were the culprits, but why? That's the biggest mystery of all.