The White Ribbon (2009)

Highly Recommended

Austria/Germany/France/Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: Das weisse Band: Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte

Writer/Director: Michael Haneke

Cinematographer: Christian Berger

Cast: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur, Ursina Lardi, Fion Mutert, Burghart Klaußner, Steffi Kühnert, Maria-Victoria, Leonard Proxauf, Josef Bierbichler, Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Janina Fautz, Enno Trebs, Theo Trebs, Rainer Bock, Roxane Duran, Susanne Lothar

A former teacher recounts his time working in a small German village just prior to the outbreak of the First World War, describing a strict, patriarchal society in which brutality and a fear of it kept everyone in their place, at least until a series of mysterious, violent incidents threatened to destroy the status quo, in Haneke’s disquieting allegorical examination of fear, repression, and violence. Iain.Stott