Movie · 2009 · Drama, Mystery · 2h 24m · R · German
Curator score: 9.1/10 (162.7K ratings)
Overview
An aged tailor recalls his life as the schoolteacher of a small village in Northern Germany that was struck by a series of strange events in the year leading up to WWI.
Ratings
Curator score: 9.1/10
IMDb: 7.8/10
Letterboxd: 4.22/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Metacritic: 84
TMDB: 7.5/10
Director
Michael Haneke
Production
Lucky Red, Wega Film, Les Films du Losange, X Filme Creative Pool
Cast
Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur, Fion Mutert, Ursina Lardi, Burghart Klaußner, Steffi Kühnert, Maria Dragus, Josef Bierbichler, Rainer Bock, Susanne Lothar, Roxane Duran, Eddy Grahl, Levin Henning, Leonard Proxauf, Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Janina Fautz, Detlev Buck, Birgit Minichmayr
Curator Review
Verdict
A rigorous, unsettling village mystery that uses restraint, black-and-white austerity, and moral ambiguity to trace the roots of cruelty and authoritarianism. It’s demanding and emotionally cold by design, but for viewers who like slow-burn psychological cinema with historical dread, it’s exceptional.
Best for
slow-burn art-house drama
historical allegory and social critique
films about repression, cruelty, and generational trauma
viewers who appreciate austere black-and-white cinematography
Skip if
you want clear answers or a conventional mystery payoff
you dislike slow pacing and emotional distance
you prefer warm, character-driven dramas
you’re not in the mood for bleak subject matter
Overview
Michael Haneke turns a pre–World War I village into a sealed laboratory of fear, punishment, and silence. The film’s mystery is less about solving incidents than about observing how a community trains itself into cruelty, with children absorbing the violence and hypocrisy around them.
Worth noting
Shot in stark black and white with severe compositional control, it feels both historical and timeless. The narration creates distance, but that distance is part of the point: the film studies systems of power, shame, and obedience with almost clinical precision.
Bottom line
It’s not an easy watch, and it’s intentionally withholding. But for viewers drawn to cinema that is formally exacting, morally abrasive, and intellectually haunting, it’s one of the defining works of 21st-century European art film.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Darren Carver-Balsiger (4.5★) · 1875 likes
In The White Ribbon, director Michael Haneke seems to ask us: where does evil come from? This is a story told as a parable, to show us a world we deeply know. It is an inhuman look at humanity, showing us the root of an evil that is (and, more crucially, was) powerful. There is sharp black and white photography, accompanied by static camerawork, and this colourless, slow portrayal of life makes no comment upon it, instead just showing us… more In The White Ribbon, director Michael Haneke seems to ask us: where does evil come from? This is a story told as a parable, to show us a world we deeply know. It is an inhuman look at humanity, showing us the root of an evil that is (and, more crucially, was) powerful. There is sharp black and white photography, accompanied by static camerawork, and this colourless, slow portrayal of life makes no comment upon it, instead just showing us… more
Jim Cummings (5★) · 1114 likes
I think this is one of the best films ever made.
I laugh for the first 25 minutes, thinking of Michael going to all of these lengths to talk about the events that lead to pre-War Germany.
Then the scene happens where the older sister and the boy are in the kitchen and he asks what death is and all of a sudden I'm crying my eyes out and then the movie gets so graphic and real.
I think this is one of the best films ever made.
Lise (4.5★) · 995 likes
It took me 24 hours to fully appreciate this film. Some things are so obviously gorgeous that you love them during the viewing: the cinematography, the pacing. But it can be difficult to distinguish the various plot points and characters, leading to confusion. While it turns out to be of little importance, as it so often does, it is nonetheless a gamble I'm always surprised film makers are willing to take.
I've got a thing about films that explore the… more
˗ˏˋ suspirliam ˊˎ˗ (4.5★) · 554 likes
a lovely little film about a lovely little village :-)
Allison M. 🌱 (4.5★) · 474 likes
At a Q&A, Michael Haneke explained that he first wrote The White Ribbon as a book almost ten years ago. Financiers weren't eager to produce the film, so he waited for the opportune moment. He told the audience that his choice to shoot the film in black and white was to get the look of old photographs and used narration to put some distance between the film and the audience. The movie is as close to a novel as can… more At a Q&A, Michael Haneke explained that he first wrote The White Ribbon as a book almost ten years ago. Financiers weren't eager to produce the film, so he waited for the opportune moment. He told the audience that his choice to shoot the film in black and white was to get the look of old photographs and used narration to put some distance between the film and the audience. The movie is as close to a novel as can… more