George and Anna's free life is disrupted by a mysterious video tape in which they see their familiar house. This is the start of all panic, of course: think about it, among the hundreds of millions of households on Earth, they were singled out. Everything tucked away in these four walls seemed less secure.
So the whole movie becomes a series of aborted attempts to hide the truth. The husband tried to cover up the past that he didn't want to recall from his wife, but it was recorded by the camera; George didn't want his friends to know what happened at home, but Anna spoke it out. In the most explosive scene of the film, a splattered bloodstain forced him to face his memory in the most extreme way, but he still couldn't make peace with it, and even the existence of the victim's son was regarded by him as a huge threat. In the end, George, who had nowhere to go, hid himself under thick curtains and quilts, but the history that was most difficult to speak and tried to forget was exposed mercilessly.
Who recorded these images? This seemingly crucial question needs no answer at all. This is the perspective of history and an objective examination. This feeling of being watched over every move is the Zeitgeist of our time, and it warns us that there are eyes in every corner of the world.
The owner of these eyes is the silent history—and this is not an overstatement. The film is full of presentations of the current situation, especially the conflict between France and Algeria. This is also the most extensive cover in the film: the forgetting of history. George's mother claimed that the memory was so uncomfortable that no one wanted to recall it. Haneke has always been critical of this view of history. In his later great work "The White Ribbon", a father who is careful about reward and punishment chooses to cover up his children's devil-like sinful behavior. We have all seen the consequences of this education.
The film ends with a meeting of young people. In an inconspicuous corner of the surveillance screen, two sons and two younger generations came together. What are they talking about? What do they know? What are they going to do next? This is a question the film is powerless and unwilling to answer. In doing so, Haneke casts a meaningful glimpse into the future: under the unbiased gaze of history, they have to make their own choices to write their own history.
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