The White Ribbon (2009)

Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?

Director:

Michael Haneke

Writers:

Michael Haneke, Michael Haneke (story)

Stars:

Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 59 wins & 39 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christian Friedel	...	The School Teacher
Ernst Jacobi	...	The School Teacher as an Old Man (voice)
Leonie Benesch	...	Eva
Ulrich Tukur	...	The Baron
Ursina Lardi	...	The Baroness
Fion Mutert	...	Sigi
Michael Kranz	...	The Tutor
Burghart Klaußner	...	The Pastor (as Burghart Klaussner)
Steffi Kühnert	...	The Pastor's Wife
Maria Dragus	...	Klara (as Maria-Victoria Dragus)
Leonard Proxauf	...	Martin
Levin Henning	...	Adolf
Johanna Busse	...	Margarete
Thibault Sérié	...	Gustav
Josef Bierbichler	...	The Steward

Storyline

From July, 1913 to the outbreak of World War I, a series of incidents take place in a German village. 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 hung upside down in a mill; parents slap and bully their children; a man is cruel to his long-suffering lover; another sexually abuses his daughter. People disappear. A callow 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.

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Plot Keywords:

protestant ethic | year 1914 | village | children | small village | 

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Genres:

Drama | History | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some disturbing content involving violence and sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Austria] Official site [Germany]

Country:

Germany Austria France Italy

Language:

German Italian Polish

Release Date:

5 March 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

The White Ribbon

Filming Locations:

Evangelical Church, Netzow, Plattenburg, Brandenburg, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

€12,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$59,848, 3 January 2010, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$2,222,647, 30 May 2010

Company Credits

Production Co:

X-Filme Creative Pool,Wega Film,Les Films du Losange

Technical Specs

Runtime:

144 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michael Haneke has said the project was in development for several years.

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Goofs

In the scene when the farmer sits next to his wife's corpse, the actress's breathing is noticeable.

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Quotes

Martin: I gave God a chance to kill me. He didn't do it, so he's pleased with me.

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Crazy Credits

The opening and closing credits are shown in complete silence. There is no music or other sounds during both entire credit sequences.

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Connections

Referenced in CT na MFF Karlovy Vary 2017: Zahradnictví (2017)

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Soundtracks

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
(uncredited)
Written by Martin Luther
Sung in the church

User Reviews

the very definition of an "art film"

Movies don't come much more austere or art-house friendly than "The White Ribbon," a German film written and directed by Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke. With its stark black-and-white cinematography and deliberate pacing, the film has the look and feel of an old Ingmar Bergman picture - Ingmar Bergman crossed with M Night Shyamalan, that is, since its story centers around a village in pre-World War I Germany where strange and inexplicable things begin to happen. The town doctor is injured in a mysterious horseback riding mishap; the baron's son is found hanging upside down in a barn; a worker dies in a freak factory accident. All of this is narrated by the town's schoolteacher (Christian Friedel) who falls for a sweet, shy girl who works as a nanny at the manor house.

The children - most of whom look like they just stepped out of "Village of the Damned" - struggle with thoughts of death and the guilt caused by a repressive society, while the adults - an emotionally rigid and unyielding pastor, a cruel, incestuous doctor - contend with their own inner demons, as they groan under the burdens of a class-conscious feudal system and the weight of their own conflicted desires. The theme seems to be that when people bury their natural urges under a crushing mountain of rules and regulations - whether societal or religious in nature - those sublimated urges will manifest themselves in other, demonstrably harmful ways (killing birds, destroying property, kidnapping and torturing children, etc.). The conclusion we're supposed to come to, I guess, is that it was from just such seeds that the war that was to come would eventually spring. I guess.

I wish I could say that I liked "The White Ribbon" better than I do. It's certainly wonderful to look at, and there is something haunting and hypnotic about Haneke's vision of life in a small German village at that particular moment in time. But the plotting is so obscure, the pacing so funereal, and the overall demeanor so heavy-handed and pretentious that, I'm afraid, it takes quite a bit of forbearance and patience just to get through it all.

Still, the mood and the visuals make it worth the effort.