There’s nothing more horrifying than the total annihilation of the nucleus of society – the family. A ritual by Austrian master Haneke – of philosophers in white golfing gloves, and the cynicism that demolishes the foundations of Western culture. And it wouldn’t be Haneke if a pinch of sarcasm wasn’t present – after the first film was made in Austria, he went on to create an identical American remake of his own work.

A father, a mother, and a son. Relaxing by a lake. Two strangers with their own understanding of repetition of reality, of “games” and entertainment. After all, there’s nothing more thrilling than a culture destroying itself, is there? Over the course of one night, the sadistic duo subjects their victims to indescribable physical and psychological torment. From time to time they break the “fourth wall”, drawing the audience into their unbearable performance, and discuss cinema that draws pleasure from pain, and society’s stoked appetite for atrocities – the kind that can be filmed, replayed, rewound, refilmed, replayed, refilmed…

A stark distillation of Haneke’s philosophy on the thin red line between violence and entertainment that caused a scandal at the Cannes Film Festival. He has possibly delivered the biggest slap in the face to the obsession of the 21st century with the myth of “eternal return” – the altars of commercial cinema laden with prequels, sequels, spin-offs, franchises, and seriality. Several years later he refilmed his 1997 work shot for shot, bringing in Tim Roth, Naomi Watts and others – playing out the very same story and creating a remake of his own film. There’s practically no difference, but in the original version agony befalls two of their generation’s finest actors – Susanne Lothar (The White Ribbon, 2009) and Ulrich Mühe (The Lives of Others, 2006).