"Das weisse Band" - a film by Michael Haneke which won an award apparently.
See: http://german.meetup.com/438/calendar/13540538/ for more.
Shame about the ending - it gave up really. Some shocking moments of cruelty and emotional and other abuse in a close-knit village just before WWI. Sounds familiar? Authoritarian and sometimes brutal fathers, others oppressed by the semi-feudal village structures and the prevailing ethic of sweeping injustice under the carpet. The white ribbon is tied round the wrists of two adolescents in the family of the initially harsh and eventually rather pathetic local pastor, who tries to repress instincts (good or bad) rather than dealing with life.
The children, it seems, tried to kill the doctor with a trip-wire. When you find out how the doctor treats his daughter and housekeeper, you wish they'd succeeded.
Well photographed in an effective black and white.
Well acted by children and adults.
The major topics the film touched on never got properly explored, leaving you feeling that you never really found out what happened or why - or if you did, that it was all too obvious.
A shame.
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