What made you choose to centre your film on this German village on the eve of the First World War?
I’d been working on the project for over 10 years. My main aim was to look at a group of children who are inculcated with values transformed into an absolute and how they internalise them. If we raise a principle or ideal, be it political or religious, to the status of an absolute, it becomes inhuman and leads to terrorism.
Another title I considered was "The Right Hand of God", for the children in the film apply these ideals to the letter and punish those who don’t share them 100%. Moreover, the film is not just about fascism, which would be too simplistic an interpretation since the story is set in Germany, but about a definite pattern and the universal problem of corrupted ideals.
I’d been working on the project for over 10 years. My main aim was to look at a group of children who are inculcated with values transformed into an absolute and how they internalise them. If we raise a principle or ideal, be it political or religious, to the status of an absolute, it becomes inhuman and leads to terrorism.
Another title I considered was "The Right Hand of God", for the children in the film apply these ideals to the letter and punish those who don’t share them 100%. Moreover, the film is not just about fascism, which would be too simplistic an interpretation since the story is set in Germany, but about a definite pattern and the universal problem of corrupted ideals.
The plot raises more questions than it answers.
There’s nothing to explain. My rule has always been to ask questions, to present very clear situations and tell a story so that the viewers can look for the answers themselves. In my opinion, the opposite is counter-productive and the viewers are not colleagues of the director either. I go to a lot of effort to achieve this effect. I believe that art should ask questions and not offer answers, which always seem to me dubious, not to say dangerous.
There’s nothing to explain. My rule has always been to ask questions, to present very clear situations and tell a story so that the viewers can look for the answers themselves. In my opinion, the opposite is counter-productive and the viewers are not colleagues of the director either. I go to a lot of effort to achieve this effect. I believe that art should ask questions and not offer answers, which always seem to me dubious, not to say dangerous.
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