Something dark afoot in 'White Ribbon'

In a pastoral German village just before the onset of World War I, something dark is afoot.

A doctor’s horse trips on a thin wire stretched between trees, and the doctor is seriously injured.

A tenant farmer’s wife falls through rotten timbers and dies.

And those are just the start of bad things to happen, stirring up righteous indignation in people who may not be as right as they think themselves.

Director Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” inhabits a literally black and white world, in which breaking the rules has consequences. Authority demands to know who is responsible.

Who indeed. Haneke leaves you focused on that question while he patiently, methodically makes his case about rampant suspicion and zealous enforcement. He looks at what those forces can do to children growing up in their midst a question relevant to now.

Haneke is such a good storyteller, and his characters are so vivid, we’re left hanging on their every word and action as if they might provide a clue.

The village schoolteacher narrates in a very old voice (Ernst Jacobi), looking back at this formative time. He sticks carefully to known facts, telling us these strange events may explain what happened in the country after. (Is he speaking of Nazism? We’re not sure.)

The village looks to its authority figures to mete out punishment and keep order. The baron (Ulrich Tukur) rules over his tenant farmers and his nanny, Eva (Leoni Benesch). The strict Protestant minister (Burghart Klaussner) tends his flock and family, the doctor his patients and his household.

But everywhere amid ordered beauty, trouble erupts.

A son of the farm wife who died blames the baron for putting her in an unsafe place. His demand for justice opens a rift with his father.

The baron’s wife (Ursina Lardi) is horrified by escalating events, particularly those harming children, and she decides to leave.

The healing doctor becomes inexplicably cruel to his mistress, a local midwife (Susanne Lothar) with a Down syndrome son.

The pastor severely punishes his children. Just being late for dinner is cause for ritual whippings. He ties a white ribbon to their arms to remind them they must be pure. We see burning anger and resentment mixed with fear in the eyes of his daughter, Klara (Maria-Victoria Dragus), and son, Martin (Leonard Proxauf).

Children hover at the edges of tragic events, drawing suspicion in their direction as well.

Christian Friedel, as the young schoolteacher, observes all as the face of kindness amid all these harsh scorekeepers. His courtship of the nanny provides warmth amid the chill of unfortunate events.

If you like stories where everything’s wrapped up with a bow at the end, this is not your movie.

If you like reaching your own conclusions, debating or reflecting on what it all means and what we might take from this story about authority, suspicion and loss of freedom, by all means buy a ticket.

“The White Ribbon” won the Golden Palm at Cannes last year and was an Oscar nominee for best foreign-language film.

Contact the writer:

444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com

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