MOVIE: THE WHITE RIBBON (German: Das Weiße Band)

Michael Haneke is a huge tease. Case in point: The White Ribbon, a slow-boiling mystery, in which the director sets out to infuriate the audience with a slew of titillating enigmas. But don’t worry; Haneke executes the film with such masterful restraint that you’ll inevitably find a perverse sense of satisfaction in being continually strung out. On the eve of World War I, a small village in protestant northern Germany experiences a number of bizarre incidents. With the village people in disarray, the local schoolmaster (Christian Friedel) begins to suspect children are behind the inexplicable transgressions. Shot in black and white, and retaining an air of moral ambiguity, Haneke’s unnerving film offers a complex study of malice, envy, apathy and brutality via a pastiche of intriguing character vignettes. Reminiscent of Robert Altman’s Gosford Park, Arthur Miller’s the Crucible and Agatha Christie’s works, the fabulously cast children are the true stars of this bona-fide classic. (JH)