German director probes roots of terror

A barn is burned down, children go missing and are found tied up and abused and the local baron is caught up in a feud with one of the peasant families who depend on him.

As the story unfolds, the self righteous cruelty inflicted by the local pastor on his family or the brutality of a local doctor toward his lover add to the uneasy feeling of threat and guilt that lies over the idyllic village.

Burghart Klaussner, the actor who plays the village pastor, said he had welcomed the chance to explore the kind of character who had stamped the world of his own childhood and youth.

"I was very glad finally to be able to play the kind of person whose impact -- in my own family and in society at large -- I felt often in the aftermath of World War Two," he said.

Haneke shot the film in black and white and said he had taken pains in casting the film to find actors whose physical appearance fit in with the images that have survived in photographs from the time.

"It's been burned into our brains, a world in black and white," he said of the contemporary imagery, adding that avoiding the "one-to-one naturalism" of color photography, allowed him to create a slightly alienated, distant feel.

Like other Haneke films, The White Ribbon leaves much unexplained and ends on an ambiguous note that makes its ultimate meaning a matter of interpretation.

"It's the duty of art to ask questions, not to provide answers," he said. "And if you want a clearer answer, I'll have to pass."

(Editing by Steve Addison)