By Marc Lee
AFI FEST Daily News

Talking to Michael Haneke about his films is a little like talking to yourself in a mirror.

The director of THE WHITE RIBBON (DAS WEISSE BAND), which screens at AFI FEST, is happy to answer a question with a question. Ask: “What is your film about?” Get: “What do you think it’s about?” Ask: “Why did you do this?” Get: “Why do you think I did that?”

Maybe it’s more like talking to a shrink. Haneke is also happy to hold up humanity’s foibles for inspection in his films, and he gives us a good close look at the perversions, violent streaks and other nasty tendencies that live in the dark corners of our Id.

“Film as art is not here to be understood,” he states during a recent interview at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. “It’s here to set off questions, not give answers.”

And so, there are plenty of “What?” moments to take home and ponder in THE WHITE RIBBON. Set in proto-fascist Germany, the film tells the story of a proper protestant farming community where a rash of unsolved murders show a twisted mind or minds bent on putting a crack in this rigid society.

The “Schoolteacher” (Christian Friedel) looks for the killer, falls in love with a young nanny, Eva (Leonie Benesch), and comes to shocking realizations about the town’s doctor (Rainer Bock) and other inhabitants. Meanwhile the Baron (Ulrich Tukur) and the Baroness (Ursina Lardi) oversee the land that the townspeople work, deal with infidelity, their son’s special needs and revenge killings. Most disturbingly, the town’s children always seem to be around the scene of the crimes in this paternalistic, punishment-happy community.

“Life is complex,” Haneke says to explain why he chose this grim story. “Why is the reality the reality? Why are 90 percent of the films different than reality? Only 10 percent show life the way it is. I am very realistic. But it’s not all dark; we have a lovely love story with the schoolteacher and then there’s the sweet children.”

Even with the sweet, sweet children, THE WHITE RIBBON is generously gloomy—but it’s not bloody. The killing in the film is actually another way the story intersects with reality. Off-screen and nearly bloodless, it’s how most people experience non-fictional violence—on the news, after it’s all done and the homicidal maniac is gone.

“All my films have the violence off screen; it’s more classic,” Haneke says. “Even in BENNY’S VIDEO [where a boy who watches violent videos, including a pig’s slaughter, becomes deranged], there’s a scene where the boy kills the girl. But the slaughterhouse scene where he kills her . . . well, your fantasy is always better than what’s on screen.”

The look of THE WHITE RIBBON, from costuming to location, is meticulously detailed. (Ask: “How much research did you do?” Get: “A lot!”) Drawing on historical records from pre-WWI Germany, particularly the photos of August Sandler, cinematographer Christian Berger, set designer Christoph Kanter and costume designer Moidele Bickel bring the turn of the 20th-century back to life in black and white.

The director sifted through not only child actors but amateurs as well, to find the children who fit his vision for the film. “My goal was to find girls who fit the pictures,” he says. “We went through about 7,000 children in about half a year. We couldn’t find all German children, so we cast internationally. The two little boys and the doctor’s daughter were from France, but they were bilingual.”

For the extras who played townspeople, the filmmaker even drew from Romania to get farmers with the correct weather-beaten look. “The tractors in Germany all have air-conditioning now,” he muses.

In the end, though, “It’s the eyes,” that matter, Haneke says. And Berger lets the camera linger on each character’s pallid, drawn face so long that it makes the audience uncomfortable. Every unwavering shot seems to be waiting for them to answer one question, “Why?”

Marc Lee is a writer, editor, webmaster and designer. If you want to give him a job, write him at marc@marcsclips.com.