The White Ribbon

Gorgeously filmed in black-and-white, Haneke's disturbing drama is best-suited to film aficionados. Misfortunes befall the small German Protestant agricultural town of Eichwald shortly before World War I, changing from minor disturbances to outright atrocities as longtime neighbors turn suspicious and vengeful. Narrated by the town's schoolteacher (Friedel)--years after the events have taken place--the town has a strict and brutal moral code and hierarchy with the children (and women) being punished for the slightest suspected infraction while the adult males carry on as they please. It comes as neither a surprise that the abused children are behind the havoc nor that the horrors depicted are only a prelude to the horrors of the upcoming war. German with subtitles.