White Ribbon, 2009 (Grade A)

Director: Michael Hanake

Awards? Yes Many -- Cannes Palm d'Or, Golden Globe Best Foreign Film, Academy Award nominations
Starring:
Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur, Ursina Lard, Burghart Klasnue,  Rainer Bock and many more

sez says: the starkness of the B&W photography is perfect for the unfolding of this riveting mystery: Who did it is asked at the start -- and with out answering that question, it is impossible to talk about the movie.  So read not more if you have not seen the movie--because I am going to give the answer.  The use of children as perpetrators of evil deeds is a well known convention to say the future is in jeopardy   -- and what we know about what would happen when this set of children come of age is well known.  These are Nazi in development. It seems at first they are taking revenge for real wrong (a father's molesting his daughter) --and then they engage in class warfare (harming the Barons son as payback for the death of a farmer's wife) --by then they have a taste for blood and they go after the weakest among them, a retarded boy--possibly to purify their corner of the world.  So the question of the movie has to shift from who did these things to why did they do them.  To answer that question we have the Baroness, who says she is leaving the Baron because she can not stay in a place that exists on and fosters malice, brutality, envy and cruelty.  Indeed, no one should --but the children have no escape and become products of these human attributes--all of which are buttressed by and veiled by strict manners.   This story is quite a ride--and it gives no relief along the way. Grade A