Caché ending explained · Cinespective

What happens

Majid kills himself in front of Georges, who still won't accept blame and retreats to bed. In the final shot, Pierrot and Majid's son meet briefly outside a school. The film never says who sent the tapes.

The last image

A wide, still shot of the school entrance, where Pierrot and Majid's son talk briefly among the crowd.

Three readings

1 · A hidden conspiracyThe two boys may have made the tapes together, though nothing on screen proves it.

2 · A passing meetingThey may simply be talking, with the next generation left to deal with the past.

3 · A test of lookingThe shot may be designed to show how readily we find guilt where we expect it.

What it says

Georges's guilt stays unresolved, so the film does too. Haneke cares less about who sent the tapes than about a man, and a country, who refuse to face the past. The open ending hands that question to you.