Das weiße Band – Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte

Germany on the eve of the First World War. Eichwald is a small Protestant village in the north. Here, everyone knows everyone else, and everyone knows their place. Interactions are respectful yet distant—until the day the doctor is injured in a riding accident. Soon, other mysterious incidents shake the village community. Beneath a veneer of piety and obedience lies a web of humiliation and fear. The white ribbon tied around the children as a reminder and a symbol of moral purity represents an authoritarian upbringing, the consequences of which extend far beyond the insular life of the village. Christian Berger’s austere compositions evoke historical photographs, transforming every shot into a portrait of society that is as beautiful as it is unsettling.
(Florian Widegger)