The Film: Arriving in our cinemas on November 13, Haneke's latest was in development for 10 years, and was originally written as a TV miniseries, before entering limbo, searching for funding.

A blend of young newcomers and established Haneke actors, the film finds strange events occurring in a small village in Germany shortly before World War One. Can the local children - endlessly repressed and abused - be behind the punishments being meted out to some adults?

Haneke's View: "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."