A glimpse of upcoming nurtured Fascism before World War I

Rating: 7/10 (6 March 2012)

A special thing about this movie is the entire movie was shot in black and white. The film shows story of Northern Germany before World War I. All the actors have done justice to their characters. This film shows the hypocrisy of the German adults who punish their children for trivial mistakes but find no faults in abusing women and children, including incestuous relationships.
The director showed the courage of having such characters like pastor who ties his adolescent son's hands to the bed because he knew his son had masturbated. A lot of disgraceful events happen at the village, but nobody is bothered about it. The parents look more of pedagogues, who attempts to instill hatred into their children instead of love. One more thing I've seen in this movie is that pure love is detested while hatred is embraced.
The kids who are punished for almost nothing, in future will do the same to their young generations. The story was set before the world war 1. So, it was clear that it were the parents and the German elders who were responsible for sowing the seeds of Fascism in the kids. While I was watching the film, I was confused whether the kids were orphans and they were living in the some church orphanage. This is because the kinds of conversation the children have with their parents. This film clearly indicates their is absence of love between the kids and their parents.
These kids never received any love so they will do the same to the upcoming generations. They will be ruthless, racist and disrespectful towards women. The director has done a very good job of showing how & why Fascism once surfaced in Germany. This movie is very good in conveying a good message, that Fascism never worked and can never work. This movie is not about who did all those terrible things in the village, rather it was an attempt by the director to show why all that happened.
This movie is very good and intelligent but not for everyone. Some people may find it boring and dull. This movie is more educational than being entertaining. So people seeking sheer entertainment may find it boring. But this flick slowly progresses to show gruesome nature of Fascism. I can say one downside of this flick is the length and monotony. Had it been a 90 min film instead of 140 min movie, I would have liked it even more. Anyways it is another great German movie and deserves at least one watch.