The White Ribbon, released on September 17, 2009, is a black and white German-language drama film directed and written by Michael Haneke. The casts of the film are Christian Fridel, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur, Burghart Klaussner, Ernst Jacobi and many more. The film won European Film Award for Best Film, Best Screenwriter, Best Director in 2009, and Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2010.
Summary of the plot
The story of the film takes place in a German Village right before WW1. A chain of strange events starts to take place in a village and creates bubbles of mysteries. Strange behaviors in village children, surpass voices and harsh punishments via taking advantage of social status, disturbing abuses, and negligence. A desperate attempt to find the culprit but only to meet with more resistance.
Review
I honestly dive into the film without any prior knowledge, which in this case, was a bad idea. The film contains some disturbing and triggering events, so a warning would’ve been nice. But I got unlucky for not being able to see the sign. Aside from that, the film is a true masterpiece.
The film takes place a couple of years prior to WW1 in a rural German village. The story starts from an unfortunate accident of the only doctor occupying the village. At first glance, it looks like any other mystery or thriller genre film, but to my surprise, it addresses a much deeper and darker reality of society. A chain of strange events starts to take place within a couple of years’ time frame after the incident with the doctor and the whole village, at some point become suspicious of one another as the true culprits of those events got unidentified. The film addresses how the uses of social status, harsh punishment, and discipline can trigger unpleasant events that can leave all of society speechless. The red flags have been there all along, but people’s negligence led to more unfortunate consequences.
Suppressed anger, harsh punishment, humiliation, unfairness, the struggle to keep up with life, depression can trigger certain darkness in humanity. And as a society most of the time we failed to protect the children and the film painted the tragic truth beautifully. The white Ribbon represents innocence and purity but what happens when society only creates an illusion and snatches away the innocence before it’s time.
Favorite quote
“I gave God a chance to kill me. He didn’t do it. So, he is pleased with me.” “What are you saying” “He doesn’t want me to die.” “Who doesn’t want you to die?” “God.”
I didn’t have any particular favorite quote, but this conversation caught my attention the most. The conversation here was a clear red flag to be noticed in a child, but sadly it goes unnoticed, and once again the adults of the society failed to protect the children.
Conclusion
I personally believe the film is a true masterpiece and the way it crafted the events and address the darker and tragic truth of reality is remarkable. All the casts have played their part beautifully, bringing more depth to the unfortunate events and making it more remarkably tragic.
Warning: To watch this movie, viewers' discretion is advised as some of the contents might be upsetting and trigger some viewers.
Reference
The cover poster - source
(Other pictures are taken from the film)
