Anna (Susanne Lothar), Georg (Ulrich Mühe) and their son Georgie arrive at their lakeside holiday home. Two young men in white tennis clothes, Paul (Arno Frisch) and Peter (Frank Giering), drop by, apparently friends of the neighbours. They are polite, almost too polite. What begins as an awkward request for eggs turns into a nightmare.
Haneke refuses to give the audience what it expects. There are no clever escapes, no heroics and no satisfying revenge. Much of the violence happens off-screen, and the camera often sits in long, unbroken takes that force you to share the family's pain. Paul even looks into the camera and talks to you, making you part of the game.
Susanne Lothar and Ulrich Mühe give devastating performances, and Arno Frisch is chilling as the smiling, boyish Paul. The film is technically brilliant and intellectually sharp.
But it is deliberately unpleasant, and some viewers find its lecture on violence smug. It is a film to admire and think about, not to enjoy. If you can handle it, it will stay with you for a long time.
