White Ribbon, The

aka: Das weisse Band
Germany / Austria 2009, 144 minutes
Dir. Michael Haneke
In German with English subtitles
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Drama

Topics: Period - 1910s.

Feat. Christian Friedel, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur, Ursina Lardi, Michael Kranz, Burghart Klaussner, Steffi Kühnert

Aroview: Michael Haneke’s intellectual rigour is paired with a mesmerising sociological drama in this award-winning exploration of the roots of fascism in rural Germany, on the eve of World War One.

Shot in penetrating black and white, Haneke’s unerring, if at times didactic style of filmmaking is, perhaps for the first time in his career, tempered in the name of classical storytelling, and the result is an exemplary period piece handled evenly across a cast of richly formed characters, whose isolated village begins to give rise to a number of mysterious, violent incidents. Fans of the director’s more transgressive works certainly won’t find this a compromise though, and will be rewarded with the same provocations and themes, only couched in a way that impressed both the Cannes festival jury, and conservative Academy Award members. (The Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film eventually went to THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES.)

NZ International Film Festival 2009
Cannes - Palm D’Or
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