Das Wei SS E Band Eine Deutsche Kindergeschichte

Das weiße Band: Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (2009), directed by Michael Haneke, encourages the viewer to contemplate the myriads ways in which power can corrupt the very essence of humanity and what it means to question authority. Focusing on the fictional town of Eichwald â€Å"in the Protesant North of East Germany in the early twentieth century,† the film weaves a tale â€Å"that lift[s] the diegetic action out of its immediate sociohistorical context, stripping it of its temporal and topographical coordinates† (Blumenthal-Barby, 95). Das weiße Band, therefore, becomes an allegory that attempts to transcend the ages, causing the viewer to think on and discuss the role of violence in any society, in Europe or elsewhere. An important aspect of the economies of power, as evidenced in the film, is that of education. Blumenthal-Barby argues, The most prominent â€Å"disciplinary† discourse in Haneke’s film undoubtedly is that of education, including the work of the Schoolteacher, whose voice-over guides us through much of the film, but also the rigid educational regime enforced by the Pastor and symbolized by the white ribbon that he ties around his children’s arms or into their hair (96). Education as a manipulative tool, exemplified by Nazi propaganda as envisioned by Joseph Goebbels, is not a novel idea. Moreover, this rigorous ideal of education plays an important role in both Haneke’s Das weiße Band—in the form of religion—and Rothemund’s Sophie Scholl: Die letzten Tage. In the