71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance

Austrian director Michael Haneke put together the "fragments" in this disjointed tale of a seemingly pointless mass murder. The film is based on a true event: On Christmas Eve of 1993, a 19-year-old student entered a bank and killed a dozen people and then himself, without apparent motive. He didn't even try to rob the bank. The film then documents bits and pieces from several months beforehand, following a number of strangers through their mundane existence. The obvious conclusion is that these events are in some way tied to the horror of the crime, but Haneke certainly doesn't make the connections easy for the viewer.