Drama lives on conflict. If you're trying to deal with social issues seriously, there's no way of avoiding violence, which is so present in society.

I consider all my films an experiment, at least in my mind.

Of course, we avoid death. To know something is inevitable is one thing. To accept, to truly feel it... that's different.

I think that religion is an integral part of human needs, but the question also is how you understand religion.

Like every filmmaker, I make my films to reach the widest audience possible.

I’ve been accused of ‘raping’ the audience in my films, and I admit to that freely — all movies assault the viewer in one way or another.

The film [the white Ribbon] does try to use German Fascism as an example, but not specifically Fascism... the results of German Fascism. It shows how people are prepared or indoctrinated for an ideology... people who are already in a state of repression who have been humiliated by society and who clasp at a straw that's offered to them. And how that's then developed into a form of indoctrination.