It does occasionally happen. I watch a film highly rated on Rotten Tomatoes and hate it! I understand why ‘White Ribbon’, the black and white German epic, is a masterpiece and deserve the rating. I am not sorry I watched it either. I still hate it.

In a nutshell

The film is set happen in a small, rural German town just before the outbreak of WWI where the Baron controls everything and the farm workers find themselves powerless. Strange things start to happen. People get hurt, children disappear and are tortured. A lone teacher, a young man at the time of the incidents, narrates the story as he tries to put the pieces together.

Mood of the film

Stark, heavy, depressing and bleak.

Best one liner

This film does not have one liners, only complex, although minimal, dialogue.

Best scene

I don’t know if I can call it a ‘best scene’, because it is incredibly hard to watch. So let’s say the ‘most haunting scene’ is where they find the young Karli, who suffers from Down Syndrome, late at night strung up to a tree.

Best performance

Die dominee.

What makes this film relevant today?

It deals with the complicity of parents in the horrible acts of their children when it was in fact the parents who drove the children to perform these acts.

FYI

The German title translates to English as “The White Ribbon – A History of German Children”. The children in the film are the generation of Germans who became Nazis.

Rotten Tomatoes Score

85%

My Score

85%

Youtube Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KJKvvvxY74

Boring details

Starring: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur

Director: Michael Haneke

Runtime: 2 hr. 24 min

Theatrical Release: Dec 30, 2009 Wide