Das Experiment (2001)

Recommended

Germany
Feature Film
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Writers: Don Bohlinger, Christoph Darnstädt, Mario Giordano
Cinematographer: Rainer Klausmann
Composer: Alexander van Bubenheim
Cast: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Berkel, Maren Eggert, Oliver Stokowski, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Justus von Dohnanyi, Nicki von Tempelhoff, Timo Dierkes, Antoine Monot Jr., Edgar Selge, Andrea Sawatzki, Philipp Hochmair

Inspired by the Stanford University psychological experiments of the early ‘70s, in which a group of students were assigned roles of either prisoners or guards in a mock prison, and their reactions monitored, Hirschbiegel’s big screen debut, transplanting the action (tellingly) to Germany, is a rather disturbing and frighteningly credible examination of man’s tribal nature and his susceptibility, given the right heightened circumstances, to committing the most atrocious of acts. Iain.Stott