Although director Michael Haneke claimed, “There’s almost never violence in my films that are depicted on screen,” it certainly seems like the opposite is true. The Austrian director has made audiences cringe with films like Funny Games and Caché, and now returns to the screen with his Palm D’Or-winning thriller, The White Ribbon.

    While the film is set in a German Protestant village at the eve of World War I, Mr. Haneke said, “I don’t think the film is that much about German fascism, rather it uses the social-historical context to examine, rather, the broader question of how people can be made … to follow the ideology.” In the village, an imbalance of power between the children and their fathers is thrown into chaos when a series of random violent events occur with no culprit in sight.

The film is shot in a gorgeous black and white, made possible through digital photography. “One of the reasons I made the choice to use black and white [is] because we know this period from the numerous black and white photographs that we’ve seen,” Mr. Haneke said, citing August Sander as a reference point.

    But when making films that examine the nature of violence, it is difficult to find children who can perform some roles. “A child doesn’t have to understand the entire film in order to shoot a specific scene,” Mr. Haneke said of his technique. “All that’s required is that you explain what the scene is about and that’s something they can identity with … I’m not sure even when I’m working with adult actors whether they understand the material.”

    Mr. Haneke also explained his reasoning for choosing a much more thematic film that his previous features, aiming for a more novelistic approach: “Most of us know this period through novels that we read about the time. So it made it easier for the spectator to identify with the story.” And while some may feel that Mr. Haneke is being conventional in form by doing so, his themes and ideas, as well as his astute and academic control of his camera, silence any sort of berating of the director.

    Like always, Mr. Haneke keeps the viewer distanced from the emotional core, and leaves open-ended questions that will frustrate some, but fascinate many. When prodded about some direct answers to the end of the film, Haneke gave a coy answer, “I think there is a rational explanation for each or every act that takes place in the film, but it’s certainly not to me to point those out.”

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