"But I believe I must tell of the strange events that occurred in our village, because they may cast a new light on some of the goings-on in this country."
— Narrator
The White Ribbon (Das Weiße Band - Eine Kindergeschichte) is a 2009 German Drama/Mystery film by Michael Haneke. Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years just before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. The abused and suppressed children of the villagers seem to be at the heart of this mystery.
This film provides examples of:
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: After his son was kidnapped and caned, the baroness goes to Italy with him. There, she starts a relationship with an Italian man. She comes back home. After some time, she tells her husband that she wants to break up with him and to live in Italy with her new lover.
- Abusive Parents: The entire plot revolves around parental brutality, repression and abuse against children. For example, the pastor beats his children with a cane because they came back home late, the doctor rapes his daughter, the steward beats his son because he pushed Sigi in a stream...
- As the Good Book Says...:
- The ones who beat Karli leave a Calling Card with a quote from the Book of Exodus: "You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me."
- Of course, the pastor also quotes the Bible (for example the Book of Psalms during the harvest festival).
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Klara, the pastor's daughter, kills her father's bird with scissors because he humiliated her in front of other children. This scene suggests that she could be involved in the series of crimes, but this is never explicitly confirmed.
- Calling Card: The ones who beat Karli leave a note with a quote from the Book of Exodus.
- Crapsack World: Systematic repression, child abuse, hierarchy, deprivation, and a grand total of about two sympathetic adult characters... and it's only going to get worse.
- Creepy Child: The only exception seems to be the Pastor's youngest.
- Dance of Romance: During the harvest festival, the school teacher dances with Eva, which allows them to get closer. Eva is quite awkward and nervous and visibly there is some chemistry between them.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The movie was originally shot in color and then altered to black and white in post-production in order to
create a distance from a false naturalism that suggests we know exactly what happened. - Denied Food as Punishment: The Pastor denies the whole family dinner for his eldest two children's sin of staying out late.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Someone opens the window of the bedroom of the steward's baby, who gets sick because of the cold. Erna, the steward's daughter, tells the school teacher that she had dreamt that this kind of incident would happen. Moreover, she tells him that she dreamt that Karli would be kidnapped and tortured, which happens for real some time later. Whether she really had prophetic dreams is left ambiguous.
- Driven to Suicide: Felder, a peasant, hangs himself, probably because his family is in financial trouble. The baron fired the whole family after Felder's son destroyed the cabbages.
- Enfant Terrible: Near the end of the film, the schoolteacher theorises that the crimes might have been committed by the village children. The pastor bars him from investigating further, so we never find out if he's right or not.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Most of the adults are not given names in the film, instead being called Pastor, Baron, Steward, etc. This includes the narrator, who is only known as The School Teacher.
- First-Person Peripheral Narrator: The story is told from the view point of a secondary character (the school teacher). He admits that many details he only knows by hearsay.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: The villagers think that the doctor tried to carry out an abortion because the midwife bore his illigitimate child. Things did not turn as expected and the midwife gave birth to a handicapped son. Whether this is true or not is left ambiguous.
- Ignored Enamored Underling: The midwife would do anything for the doctor's love.
- Jerkass: The doctor towards the midwife.
- Love at First Sight: The school teacher falls in love with Eva the first time he sees her, as she rides a bicycle to go home.
- McGuffin: The crimes. Ultimately it's not about whodunit, but how a society will set itself up for evil.
- Meet the In-Laws: The school teacher meets the parents of Eva, his Love Interest. He formally proposes to her. Her father accepts, on the condition that they wait for one year.
- The Mistress: The midwife has been the doctor's mistress for years. At some point, the doctor dumps her.
- No Ending: The school teacher gets married and leaves, and the audience never has any answers as to who or what is causing the crimes.
- Only Sane Man: The school teacher seems to be the only adult in the town without some dark secret or fanatical viewpoint. Though of course, he is the one narrating the story...
- Parental Incest: The doctor and his daughter.
- Prim and Proper Bun: The go-to hairstyle of the women in the village is a tight, tidy bun, which together with their dark dresses mirrors the conservative atmosphere of this community. The Pastor's daughter has begun wearing her hair this way, but is compelled to revert to a braid while the humiliating punishment of wearing a white ribbon in her hair lasts.
- Replacement Goldfish: When Piepsi the songbird dies, the Pastor's youngest offers the bird he has nursed to health to replace him. Because his father seemed so sad.
- Schoolmarm: The narrator is a male example.
- Silent Credits: There is no music or other sounds during the closing credits.
- That Liar Lies: The baron asks the baroness if she slept with the man she met in Italy. She answers that she did not. The baron tells her that she is a liar.
- Town with a Dark Secret: A village with an unsolved mystery.
- Unreliable Narrator: Before beginning his tale, the school teacher admits that he doesn't know the full story and that some parts of his story consist of rumors sourced from other villagers, hence why some parts of the film are viewed from the other villagers' perspectives.
- The Unsolved Mystery: We never learn who committed the crimes, leaving us with No Ending.
- We Have Ways of Making You Talk: The sentence is uttered by one of the policemen who question Erna about her alleged prophetic dreams.
