The White Ribbon (2009)

Set in a small German village on the eve of the First World War, it begins with a horrible incident: a doctor on horseback falls over a tripwire. More terrible events happen: grisly beatings and deaths, barn fires and destruction of crops. Who is behind all this and why? A mild-mannered, bespectacled schoolteacher (Christian Friedel) takes it upon himself to find out, while at the same time gently romancing a young town beauty.

Of course, the mystery here is just as elusive as the one in Haneke's Cache, which indicates that the film is really about something else, specifically sexual politics and sexual cruelty. Haneke so vividly defines the place and time that the bizarre rules seem to click into place, making us guilty accomplices as well as modern-day judges.