Strange things are happening in a small German village on the eve of the First World War. The local doctor’s horse is brought down by a trip wire and he is badly injured. A mentally fragile young boy is found beaten up in the nearby woods and there are other "accidents".
Michael Haneke, the Austrian director of the controversial Funny Games and multi-awarded The Piano Teacher and Hidden, constructs another psychological whodunit with his impressive new film.
We never discover the answer to the riddle, though we suspect it may be the revenge of a group of children and a community of adults whose strict code of morals hides a dozen nasty secrets.
Like Hidden, where we never found out who was sending threatening letters and tapes to its respectable middle-class couples, the film tries to worm its way into the hearts and souls of his characters — in this case the joy‑destroying local priest, the landowner whose wife is fed up with him, and the doctor who abuses the woman looking after his practice, having taken his fill of her sexually.
The film, made in black and white and with no stars, is a long but intriguing journey as Haneke’s filmic scalpel probes and probes.
A commentary from a local man who remembers it all suggests that the story is a legend in the village to this day. It may be exaggerated but most of it is true.
Haneke makes it seem very real indeed. He likes to expose the bad consciences of us all, and though we could argue about his motives, you have to admit that he is a film‑maker of great power and skill.
White Ribbon
