The White Ribbon

About the film
In a village in Protestant northern Germany, on the eve of World War I, the children of a church and school run by the village schoolteacher and their families experience a series of bizarre incidents that inexplicably assume the characteristics of a punishment ritual. Who could be responsible for such bizarre transgressions? Leonie Benesch, Josef Bierbichler, and Rainer Bock star in director Michael Haneke's Palm d'Or-winning period drama.

Interview with cinematographer Christian Berger

The White Ribbon is so different from the other films you’ve shot for Haneke. Why did you choose black and white?
It was our goal to make not black and white because it’s 1914, or to evoke a kind of nostalgia, or to fake something authentic. It was actually to create a strong abstraction. Michael Haneke said, of course all the photos and film of that time are in black and white. But we didn’t want to recreate that black and white. I hope it worked, because it’s a kind of modern black and white, even if I don’t know what it means. Read the full interview here.