Winner of the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and a reoccurring name in many best of 2009 lists, including Sight and Sound’s critics poll. Michael Haneke’s latest film, still on limited release around the country, has gained a considerable reputation since its premiere in May.

Opening with a narrator announcing that he believes this story will shed light on events that came afterwards – a fairly unambiguous reference to the rise of Fascism and the Second World War, as the film takes place on the cusp of the First – The White Ribbon (subtitled, with black-humour, ‘A German Children’s Story’) focuses on the lives of the residents of a remote Austrian village, from the unhappily married local baron, to the psychotically strict minister, to the village children running around in a conspiratorial mass, the only particularly cheerful character in the film is the local schoolteacher (and narrator) who is attempting to woo the baron’s overly-timid nanny. This general sense of discontent begins to manifest itself in anonymous attacks on the village residents, starting with the doctor being thrown from his horse and, like in Haneke’s previous masterwork Hidden, the story adds up to a paranoid whodunit, which concludes with a fairly ambiguous solution.

Although the components of the film are nothing new – it being equal parts Ingmar Bergman, and Village of the Damned, and fits in with the recent trend in German language cinema to analyse 20th century events – The White Ribbon really is a genuinely unique experience. In covering all levels of the social strata of the village Haneke finds a interesting angle to explore his political subtext. And rarely has the relationship between adults and their children been shown as being so universally violent and troubled.

However, it could be said that Haneke’s ambitions are a little too grand, like in his earlier film Code Unknown, he comes a little unstuck in attempting to cover so broad a subject, with so many characters – although every scene is exquisitely filmed and acted, in several cases it’s hard to see what they add to the film’s thesis, indeed, despite the opening narration, it’s better not to consider the film as a insight into the motivations behind political developments, and instead as a grimly effective morality tale. It’s also more difficult to become emotionally or mentally involved with the action than in his more refined shockers Hidden and The Piano Teacher. Additionally, while this might sound like a superficial complaint, the subtitling on the film is occasionally difficult to read against the black and white photography, which for such a dense, dialogue-heavy film is an unwanted distraction. That being said, The White Ribbon still offers so much intriguing, disturbing and even entertaining content, and is a worthy recipient of its critical success.