The White Ribbon (2009)

A German film set in the pre-WWI period, directed by Michael Haneke, this film is a disturbing look at the repression that local society was under in a small town in Germany. This is a town ruled by the Baron, the Pastor and the Doctor, all patriarchal male figures who dominate the landscape and its people. Their children are under their control, and it is this repressive element that causes some of the children to lash out at the others.
It's a taut script, and well made. Nothing much really is revealed towards the end. The story leaves it open. It won the Palme D'Or at Cannes in 2009.
What is The White Ribbon? The Pastor ties it on his kids to signify purity and chastity. On the boy it is tied on the arm, just like the Nazis would tie on the Jewish community to set them apart.
Even if you push someone to accept a set of values that they don't believe in, will these types of things work?
I read somewhere that the Director was trying to also show how many elements in today's world are similar to those of pre-1913 Germany and how the regime of intolerance and repression that we find in many countries of the world today will lead to a situation like that in the 1910s to 1940s.
The world is after all, in its children's hands.