"Everything in The White Ribbon is true. And that is why it is so difficult to bear"

Rating: 10/10 (25 June 2012)

Das weiße Band, Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte - "The White Ribbon, a German Children's Story" – CATCH IT (A+)
Das weiße Band is a German movie about almost 50 years old former teacher (presumably on verge of World War II), who is thinking about the strange events, happened in his village of Eichwald north of Germany just before World War I. To his believe the children in the village are the generation of Germans who became Nazis. The movie runs in flashback where former teacher tells about different series of incidents take place in the village of Eichwald. These incidents starts with A horse trips on a wire and throws the rider; a woman falls to her death through rotted planks; the local baron's son is beaten and hung upside down in a mill; parents slap and bully their children; a man is cruel to his long-suffering lover and sexually abuses his daughter. People disappear. The teacher, who courts a nanny in the baron's household, narrates the story and tries to investigate the connections among these accidents and crimes. What is foreshadowed? Are the children holy innocents? God may be in His heaven, but all is not right with the world; the center cannot hold. (IMDB) It won't be wrong to say that The White Ribbons is one of the creepiest movies of all times. This Black&White venture didn't rely on screams, graphics, blood or torture to create creepiest. The creepiest relies in the people and children living in the village. They are obscure and living duel lives in front of public and behind doors. There are many moments in the movie which will literally put audience in shock and disbelieve. Some of the most bizarre scenes have to confrontation about masturbation between Pastor and his young boy who is entering into adolescence. Later for vindictive divinity, every night as punishment he ties his eldest son's hands to prevent even the possibility of nocturnal masturbation. Then there is a widowed doctor who engages in unthinkable practices with his 14-year-old daughter. Besides that the beating the Baron's young kid and torture upon midwife's special child makes you squirm. Michael Haneke has directed a beautiful movie about complex subject matter. As one critic rightly said "Everything in The White Ribbon is true. And that is why it is so difficult to bear". All the children are truly the star of the movie. I have to mention these names who were absolutely incredible Christian Friedel as the school teacher , Leonie Benesch as Eva, nanny to the baron and baroness's twin babies , Ulrich Tukur as the baron, Ursina Lardi as the baroness, Marie-Louise Fion Mutert as Sigmund, their oldest son , Burghart Klaußner as the pastor, Steffi Kühnert as Anna, the pastor's wife, Maria-Victoria Dragus as Klara, their oldest daughter, Leonard Proxauf as Martin, their oldest son, Roxane Duran as Anna, the doctor's daughter , Susanne Lothar as the midwife . The ending of the movie is ambiguous as the teacher himself doesn't know what happened to some of the people or who is behind the torturous events. But if you read between the lines and watch carefully you'll understand who can actually do that and Why? An Absolute Remarkable piece of Art, movies like A Separation and The White Ribbon makes me love foreign cinema.