On a busy Paris street, a youth scornfully tosses a crumpled paper bag into the outstretched hands of a beggar woman. This is the bond which, for an instant, links several very different characters: actress Anne (Juliette Binoche); her war photographer boyfriend Georges; his farmer father and younger brother Jean, who, contrary to his father’s wishes, has no interest in inheriting the farm; Amandou, a music teacher for deaf-mute children; and his family who originate from Africa; and Romanian immigrant Maria. Haneke’s ambitious, complex and powerful ‘Code Unknown’ is a fascinating study of the subtle connections and barriers between people, class, race and the difficulty of communicating in the modern world. It was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2000.
