Often in film, story becomes the magical thread that keeps us involved. Story usually consists of questions and answers that create conflict. In Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon, the questions we receive indeed create conflict, but it also puts in view how far we will go to find the answers. Many have tagged this film as being a glimpse into the ideological beginnings of German fascism, or the NAZIs. I would agree with that notion but what makes the film so interesting and gives it its true power is its transcendence across national, cultural, and even periodical divisions for that all too human need to understand its own basic horrors and needs for safety.

The film is set in rural Germany just before World War I. The story takes place in a village where life is as simple and common as an early 20th century village gets. The baron owns the land and provides employment for over half the people living in the area. The town is small enough where there is a single pastor, doctor, and school teacher to accommodate everyone. Everyone plays their assigned roles to "clockwork" like rhythm and the slightest variance echoes like a bomb. From here is wasn't clear to me if the patriarchal nature of this village was a detail of this time and place or if the authoritarian setting was acutely unique to this village but that's what was just another layer in the film's rich "mise en scene."

The story is narrated by the schoolteacher (Ernst Jacobi) played in a much younger version by Christian Friedel. The old man narrates with objectivity and precision. He gives no opinions or conclusions, just facts. Several incidents interrupt the fragile balance that has been kept for what seems like generations. The doctor's horse trips over a wire that has been maliciously laid out near his home. Later a farmers wife is killed at the town mill and the farmers grieving gives way to angst that heighten divisions between the privileged and the village people.  More incidents occur and Jacobi finds more and more clues as to who may be behind these deeds, but where it leads makes him even doubt. Suspicion is everywhere and the village tries to come together but the more they try to remain stoic on the surface, the more things unravel under their feet.

The film is full of domestic drama that is shot and performed with exacting precision. The acting performances are superb and the pacing is slow and patient camera reminiscent of older great works in cinema. The film this reminds me the most of is Rashomon, where the answers are not the subject but the different points of view, all being true. Where Ribbon differs, is in its characters reactions and efforts to control one another for their own safety and well being. It's presumed that the tragic aftermath of a nation gone to extremes to produce this more orderly society is a futility that leads to insanity and its own ultimate destruction.