White Rage

In this quasi-documentary, Finnish filmmaker Arto Halonen imaginatively investigates the link between bullying and acts of horrific school violence. White Rage's centerpiece is running narration by an unseen man named Lauri, who describes how the treatment he received from his father at home and classmates at school resulted in what—as now a social scientist himself researching the origins of human aggression—Lauri calls “white rage,” or a long-simmering lust for revenge. Lauri says that “white rage” can not only eventually explode in school shootings but also might explain the mindset of young men seduced into joining terrorist groups. Interwoven with Lauri's self-revelations (which are accompanied by dreamlike recreations) are references to the perpetrators of Finland's two school shootings at Jokela in 2007 and Kauhajoki in 2008, which are shown through similarly subtle recreations but also via more brusque news reports. Also included are allusions to tragedies elsewhere, from Columbine in the U.S. to Utøya in Norway. White Rage is technically a documentary that presents a sociological argument positing a long train of mistreatment lying at the root of terrible acts, but it does so in a style that can best be described as semi-phantasmagorical. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)