The White Ribbon

In a respectable one hundred and forty minutes, Haneke uncovers a truly incredible cabaret of the demeaning, hypocritical, vengeful, and cruel. The most depressing analysis of a closed society you're likely to come across. And the film pulls this off on its own without any judgement. In this work, the door plays a major role. (07/02/2010)

The White Ribbon is not so much a dark thriller or even a crime drama as it is a journey into the early 20th century and a precisely executed depiction of the societal thinking and hierarchy of that time. It is a late patriarchal system where the word of the family breadwinner was law and upbringing took place not only in a strict religious but primarily authoritarian conservative spirit. Order, discipline, and authority, where many dark stories took place under the guise of orderliness, and many things were successfully swept under the rug. Masturbation was a crime, but sexual abuse was not addressed. Haneke is an excellent director and it shows in this film. The unsettling atmosphere of the village, far from civilization centers, where the advances of modern technology and modern liberal philosophical movements have not yet reached. I have a problem with some of Haneke's films, with his manipulation of the audience's emotions and unresolved endings, but he succeeded here. The unsettling ending with lots of dark suspicions, hints, and terrifying visions somehow fits into the period of the beginning of World War I and the end of that old quiet patriarchal society. Overall impression: 90%. (03/25/2012)

Set against the backdrop of those horrific events, The White Ribbon reveals the warped morals and stifling atmosphere of a German village, which escalates as the number of atrocities escalates. The spasmodically punctilious and often unnecessarily cruel upbringing of the children blinds the minds of the villagers in their search for the real culprits – unable to even admit or consider that their offspring might have had something to do with it... A very impressive drama indeed, with excellent child actors, in which interpersonal relationships and concealed loathing are excellently portrayed alongside unidentifiable evil (Haneke really takes the gloves off for this one). P.S.: I was pleasantly surprised by the almost full capacity of the multiplex. :) 90% (01/24/2010)

Michael Haneke is an excellent author who can surprise you with each of his films because each of his films is different. It is a different genre, often a different style, although it is true that his films usually have a slower pace. Here, you will be absolutely captivated by the black-and-white execution, even though the film was not originally shot in black and white, but later adjusted to black and white. (04/12/2016)

That was awesome! A hard, unpleasant and very intense psychological drama. I’ve just watched it and I feel as if Haneke had ran me over with a steamroller. The White Ribbon is a truly impressive mosaic of relationships in an Austrian village before WWI that reveals the origins of human hatred and corruption. It’s almost like a realistic Twin Peaks. (01/01/2010)