The White Ribbon

THE WHITE RIBBON

I don't know if the story I want to tell you is entirely true.

Some of it I only know from hearsay.

After so many years, a lot of it is still obscure,

and many questions remain unanswered.

But I feel I must talk about the strange events

that occurred in our village.

They could perhaps clarify

certain things that happened in this country.

It all began, I think, with the doctor's riding accident.

After his dressage session on the Baron's estate,

he was heading home

to see if any patients had arrived.

On entering the garden, his horse tripped on a wire

strung between two trees.

His daughter saw the accident from a window and informed a neighbour

who informed the estate's steward

so that the doctor, who was in agony,

could be transported to the district hospital over 30 km away.

The neighbour, a single woman of around 40,

was the village midwife.

Since the doctor's wife had died in childbirth,

she had become invaluable to him as a housekeeper and receptionist.

After tending to the doctor's two children,

she went to the school to fetch her own son, Karl.

- Have you seen Anni? - You haven't even said hello.

- Hello, Mrs Wagner. Forgive him. - Hello, Klara.

We are so worried that Martin has forgotten his manners.

That's all right.

- How is the Doctor? - Not very well.

- Will he have to stay in hospital? - I don't know.

- We'll go and see if we can help Anna. - Good.

- Did you enjoy the choir? - Yes.

Show how well you sang.

Goodbye, sir.

Last one is a rotten egg!

If I remember rightly,

it seemed odd to me that the children with Klara,

instead of scattering after school to their homes,

headed together to the outskirts of the village.

I could cut out some animals for you,

like last week.

Would you like that?

We can colour them in together.

Or make cutouts from lovely coloured paper?

The golden paper I got for Easter, remember?

Come on.

I'll make us something to eat.

What if he never comes back?

What?

Come on!

Don't be silly!

It's like when you get the flu.

Remember last winter?

You were very sick, weren't you?

And then...

- Hi, Anni. - How are you?

Can we help you?

How did the wire get there? Did the Doctor say?

He was in no mood to talk.

His collarbone was sticking out of his neck.

I've asked his daughter. She has no idea.

He rides through there every day.

- Did you look at the wire? - Of course. It's thin but strong.

Almost invisible.

Sorry, madam. You play too well for me.

Don't apologise, concentrate. It'll help us both.

You play too fast for me, madam. I am not Frederick the Great.

How could he have played Schubert?

Let's start the Variation again.

Darling, if you like the music, sit beside me and turn the pages.

If you're bored, go to your room.

Or stay out of my sight.

I get nervous when you're sauntering around.

What time is it? Where's the nanny?

With the twins, I presume.

- It's twenty to nine. - Twenty to nine?

Way past your bedtime!

- Has he done his homework? - Of course, madam.

Do you want to turn the pages for me or not?

- Yes. - Then come over here.

Let's go back to the Theme.

Practise the Variations or it's no fun.

- I'll do my best, Baroness. - So, from the ninth bar.

Please forgive us, Father.

Forgive us.

This evening no one here has felt like eating.

When night fell and you hadn't returned,

your mother searched the village in tears.

How could we enjoy our meal, whilst fearing for you?

How can we enjoy our meal now, having heard your lies and excuses?

I don't know what's worse, your absence or your return.

Tonight we shall all go to bed hungry.

You surely all agree with me

that I cannot leave your offence unpunished

if we are to carry on living in mutual respect.

Tomorrow evening at this hour,

I shall give each of you, in front of your siblings,

ten lashes of the cane.

Until then, you may ponder over your offence.

- Do you agree with me? - Yes, Father.

All right, then. Go to bed now, all of you.

Don't touch me.

Your mother and I will sleep badly tonight.

I must beat you and the lashes will cause us more pain than you.

Leave us alone and go to bed.

When you were little,

your mother sometimes tied a ribbon in your hair or around your arm.

Its white colour was to remind you of innocence and purity.

I thought you were now well-mannered enough

to get by without such reminders.

I was wrong.

Tomorrow, once your punishment has purified you,

your mother will retie a ribbon on you,

and you will wear it until we can trust you again.

Where is the wire now?

- Who removed it? - I don't know.

Weren't you here?

- Were you in town with your father? - No.

- Then you must have been here. - I was at school.

When you left, was the wire still here?

I didn't check.

- When did you get back? - At noon.

I make lunch for the doctor and the kids.

I've been helping him since his wife died.

- When was that? - Since Rudolph's birth, five years ago.

I'm the midwife here. We work together.

- But you saw nothing? - No.

- How long was the wire there? - I never saw it.

So nobody saw it, before or afterwards?

Did it wind itself around two trees and vanish by itself?

Well?

- Mother! - What is it?

Excuse me.

The day after the doctor's accident

brought no solution to the mystery.

Then a second far more tragic incident

almost made people forget the previous one.

The wife of a tenant farmer died in a work accident.

The woman, who had an injured arm,

was discharged by the steward from harvesting duties

and assigned to lighter work in the sawmill.

Stay outside, I'm not done.

You get out.

On the same day, I had a strange encounter.

The weather was beautiful and hot,

so I decided to improve my meagre menu

with some brown trout

which are plentiful in the river.

The Baron allowed me to fish there.

Martin!

Martin, be careful!

Are you insane?

Do you want to break your neck?

Hello, sir.

What's wrong? Have you gone mad?

Do you know how high this is?

Didn't you hear me shout to you?

- I did, sir. - Well?

Well?

You saw me and wanted to impress me, is that it?

- So why... - I was giving God a chance to kill me.

He didn't do it so he must be pleased with me.

What are you saying?

He doesn't want me to die.

Who doesn't want you to die?

God.

Why would God want you to die?

Promise me you won't do it again.

Look at me.

Promise me.

Don't you trust me?

Yes, I do, sir.

All right.

Go home now. I'll talk to your father after your piano lesson tomorrow.

Please don't tell him, sir!

It's there.

Careful, it's all rotten.

Who sent her up here?

No idea. We had to collect loose ends and she fell through.

- Did you see it? - Not really.

You know how it is.

The foremen send the weaker harvesters up here.

Who sent her up here?

It was on my way home, after that strange encounter with Martin,

that I first met Eva.

Hello.

Excuse me.

Sorry for accosting you.

Aren't you the new nanny on the estate?

Why?

They say you're from Treglitz.

- Who says that? - The locals.

So?

Nothing.

I don't know.

I'm the schoolteacher here.

I just thought...

When I saw you, I thought...

I'm the tailor's son from Vasendorf.