Just before the First World War, a Protestant village in northern Germany starts to come apart. While riding a horse, a doctor is brought down by a wire strung between two trees on his land. A farmer’s wife dies. A child is tortured. The pastor ties white ribbons on his children as a reminder to stay pure. Years later, the local teacher tries to piece the cruelties together. Nobody will say who is doing it. The village already knows how to punish.

I love that Haneke refuses to turn this into a whodunnit with a neat bow. It is shot in harsh black and white that looks like an old photograph someone has scraped the warmth out of. The adults preach, grope and beat. The children watch and internalise.

It can feel like being given a lecture with the sound down: long takes, pale faces, and no score. That frostiness is the point, and also why it sits at a 4 rather than with the films I go back to for pleasure. It’s a serious, nasty piece of work about how violence is taught and nurtured before it is declared.

Worth investigating and experiencing.

4 out of 5 stars