On a busy Paris boulevard, 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. Anne (Binoche), an actress; 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 Maria a Romanian immigrant. Written and directed by Michael Haneke, one of modern cinema's most distinctive and ambitious directors, CODE UNKNOWN is a complex film of powerful emotional force and a fascinating study of the subtle connections and barriers between people, social class, race, and the difficulty of communicating in the modern world.
