A guilty innocence

Rating: Null/10 (11 March 2011)

As I watched this film all I could think of was the psychological unrest that historically lead to the Third Reich in Germany. I can't believe there was another intention to the making of this sinister, clever, intelligent and harrowing cinematic experience. The movie is set in the 1916/1917 period (Second World War), when a series of murderous acts take place in a small German village, presumably perpetrated by children that by 1935 would be commanding Nazi battalions throughout Europe. This is what I was thinking during a movie that is shot in sublime black and white, that utilizes cinematic tension intelligently (it's slow for a reason), is well written (especially the voice-over narration) and is acted so superbly that you wonder why German cinema isn't more popular these days. I must say that I was completely blown away. In the end, Haneke always leaves certain unfinished business. In his movie Caché, I lost track of the mystery that he spent so much time elaborating and then ended up with a million unanswered questions here too, I secretly wish I knew how everything fits in in the end but this point may very well be a part of the effectiveness and overall quality of a somewhat ground-breaking movie, that says a lot about a people's descent into cruelty and into letting cruelty go unattended I find that is the overall premise of this mystery that remains a mystery this is a matter "left unattended", the story of these children is left as a hanging, foreboding mystery, and the sickness of their behaviour, as well as the behaviour of their families, a planted seed whose cure was never tracked or found (the already dubious doctor symbolically vanishes - which is moreover THE event that most confuses and remains unanswered), and it all seems a premonition of the even more harrowing and unexplainable reality to come. A great social commentary about the "cruel white ribbon", an intense movie that keeps you interested throughout, beautiful shots, the children are magnificent, every scene tells a well-crafted story within itself with the added balance of a good-hearted narrator in his old age that is as confused as he is distraught about the events he's witnessed.