Individual, family and society

The British "Guardian" commented that this film is "The first great film of the twenty-first century". After watching it, I felt it was not an exaggeration. We can interpret this film from multiple levels: from a personal perspective, there are deception, guilt, jealousy, suspicion, hatred, and vent; from a family perspective, there are trust, family, parent-child relationship, and betrayal; and from the most From a macro perspective, we can see the opposition between the middle class and the bottom, the mainstream and the non-mainstream, the conflict between France and Algeria, and the incomprehension between the Western world and the Arab world. Any one subject here can be a great movie alone, but the director perfectly condenses all these themes together in one movie. What's more remarkable is that he is able to achieve a compact, exciting and fascinating plot, allowing the audience to start thinking about the meaning behind the film while watching the film with suspense.

In the end, the film did not tell us the instigator behind the mystery tapes and threatening letters; in fact, this is no longer the point, but just leads to the dilemma of the protagonist Georges and the audience: Should I trust a person I have hurt and have a reason to do? Those who retaliate themselves? Georges is not a likable character in the film: On the one hand, he insists on refusing to trust Majid, on the other hand, he keeps lying and concealing himself. From the initial reluctance to tell his friends the ins and outs of the mysterious shadow, to the refusal to tell his wife that he is right. Majid's suspicion went to trying to conceal the fact that he saw Majid, and even finally omitted Majid's last words "I have nothing to do with the videotape". His wife was more frank than him, but she also had an extramarital affair behind Georges, which made her accusation of Georges even more hypocritical. When Georges angrily accused Majid of trying to destroy his life and family, and threatened to retaliate, the latter replied: "I believe in you, but you don't believe in me."

The film's allusion to politics is equally profound. The number of African-Arab immigrants in French society is huge, but they will never be able to integrate into the mainstream society. What responsibility should the French middle class represented by Georges bear? "You deprived my father of the right to receive a good education." The racial estrangement led to subsequent conflicts. To a certain extent, we have to say that this is self-blaming. This refraction can also be extended to the entire Western world's post-war policy on foreign immigrants, especially the immigration policies of former colonial countries, and even the conflict between the West and the Islamic world. Don’t the threats between Georges and Majid’s sons often reappear in the TV news?

Similarly, after Majid's suicide, Georges further accused Majid's son as the real mastermind, which seems to represent that hatred and prejudice have been passed on to the next generation; but at the end of the film, the dialogue between Majid's son and Georges' son again represents what? Are they in friendly contact with each other, or are they continuing to insult and suspicion? Director Michael Haneke decided to mute the original dialogue at the last moment, which is even more meaningful.

Of course, there are still some flaws in perfection, and the ending of the movie is too hasty, giving the feeling of top-heavy. However, it is not easy to condense so many heavy, complex, and grand themes into a two-hour movie. Coupled with a nearly perfect plot, it is worthy of being the best director and jury at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Grand prize winner of two awards.

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