Page - 60 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/01

60 | Gerwin van der Pol www.jrfm.eu 2018 4/1 Both films thus show a plethora of immoral actions. People hurt each other, physically and emotionally. People lie and cheat. And all the characters act out of a feeling of moral superiority. They act immorally to defend their own mor- als. This paradox is not resolved; instead the films ensure the friction is severe. PUNISHMENT AND CRIME In 1940 George Bernard Shaw famously stated: “We ought to have declared war on Germany the moment Mr. Hitler’s police stole Einstein’s violin.” The White Ribbon can be seen as such a rewriting of events, although for the First World War rather than the Second. Here we see criminal acts, unresolved and unpun- ished, carried out by those who will subsequently fight in the war. Shaw’s re- mark seems morally sound. Just like Shaw, the spectator eagerly waits for the characters to be punished. But the film has a different logic. There are punish- ments, but they come before the crime; even worse, they cause the crimes. And the crimes themselves are left unanswered. Klara and Martin are reprimanded for not coming home in time; Mrs Felder dies. Ferdinand is reprimanded for saying out loud that he wished the baby to be a girl: the baby catches pneumonia because of the open window. The pastor’s bird is killed by Klara because the pastor had criticised her publicly. Karli is almost blinded directly after we have seen Klara at confession, with her father hesitat- ing to offer her the wine to drink, she looking up to him, and he looking doubt- fully at her (maybe reprimanding him with her eyes, she fighting his powers). And even the horse’s tripping over the wire, the first event, is preceded by a punishment. After all, the pastor reminds the children that when they were younger they had to wear those ribbons, to make them recognise their moral purity. And even then, they must have taken it as a punishment. Although the pastor talks about the ribbon as some sort of trophy of moral superiority, he also, later, liberates them from this “burden”. BALANCE I have suggested that the spectator of The White Ribbon finds himself in the dark recesses of the Unjust World. It is difficult to find a way out. It is not just painful to witness immoral acts; it also becomes unbearable, because the im- moral acts are based on the concept of the Just World. Balance, as the foun- dation of the Just World, leads to the horrors of The White Ribbon. It leads to punishment and crime. But the film does not teach us that. Actually, it shows how detrimental such a logic of balance is to a society. The film shows moments that disturb this log- ic. And the spectator longs for those moments. We find solace in the few acts