A masterpiece

Rating: 8/10 (6 March 2010)

Director Michael Haneke's film 'The White Ribbon' is a brilliantly paced slow burn into the secrets of a small town somewhere in north Germany. Haneke also wrote the screenplay setting it just before 1914 and the run up to WWI. He shot his masterpiece in magnificent black and white, which places your imagination as close to this period of time as most would imagine. True to many of Haneke's recent films, we see the worst of human nature. Yet his ability to bring you so close to each character secures you to your seat motivating your internal desire to see how it all plays out.
Strange things are set in motion inside this tight community when someone plants a trap causing the town's doctor to take a fall from his horse causing him serious injuries. His two kids lost their mother in a mysterious death 5 years earlier, which resulted in the town's midwife looking after the children as the doctor spends months in recovery in an out-of- town hospital.
The spiritual leader of the community, a Protestant pastor is a strict, guilt-slinging father of 5 kids for which he provides severe punishment so they become 'pure' adults. You have the Baron and wife who are disliked by most as they employ about half the town. They too have dirty secrets. The Barons steward and his wife and kids struggle as he tries to keep his family in line.
Adults start dying, children are tortured, yet no one can find the culprits. The story is narrated by the schoolteacher, a new town resident, who recalls the story years after the war to the best of his recollection.
'The White Ribbon' won the Palm d'Or, the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. It's also nominated for 2 Oscars, Best Achievement in Cinematography and Best Foreign Language Film of the Year.
Seek this film out. Your taste in cinema will change forever.