Welle, Die (2008)

Director:

Dennis Gansel

Writers:

Dennis Gansel (writer)
Todd Strasser (novel)

Release Date:

13 March 2008 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A high school teacher's unusual experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own. |

Plot Keywords:

Shot Through The Mouth | Houseboat | Gymnasium School | Underwater Scenes | Dead Boy

Awards:

2 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Jürgen Vogel	...	Rainer Wenger
Frederick Lau	...	Tim
Max Riemelt	...	Marco
Jennifer Ulrich	...	Karo
Christiane Paul	...	Anke Wenger
Elyas M'Barek	...	Sinan
Cristina do Rego	...	Lisa
Jacob Matschenz	...	Dennis
Maximilian Vollmar	...	Bomber
Max Mauff	...	Kevin (as Maximilian Mauff)
Ferdinand Schmidt-Modrow	...	Ferdi
Tim Oliver Schultz	...	Jens
Amelie Kiefer	...	Mona
Odine Johne	...	Maja
Fabian Preger	...	Kaschi

Also Known As:

The Wave (USA)

Runtime:

101 min | Germany:110 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Czech Republic:12 | UK:15 | Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Rat Pack Filmproduktion GmbH

Trivia:

Ron Jones, the initiator of the original experiment, attended the film's world premiere at Sundance Film Festival.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The action is clearly set in the 21st century, but the license plates of most or all cars begin with 'BE' (district 'Beckum', North Rhine-Westphalia). These licenses expired on January 1st, 1975. (This surely is intended to set the action 'somewhere in Germany')

Movie Connections:

Version of The Wave (1981) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Execution Song

Educational crowd control

Booooring. Can't say I didn't see it coming though. Movies and messages, they don't go together well. The fact that the script is, according to the opening credits, based on a "true story", doesn't make it any more plausible, or enjoyable. It's also a false pretense. The screenwriter may have borrowed from the (widely publicized) incident recorded by novelist Todd Strasser. But fact is there are no stories in real life. There are only events and experience. Life doesn't tell stories; they are the prerogative of art. But art is something that's painfully absent from this movie. Perhaps its only strong point is a gang of preteen hoodlums in knitwear caps who look and talk exactly like pint-sized versions of Silent Bob's chatty buddy Jay. Good type-casting in general: the doll-faced eager beaver, the slick rich kid, the clown, the geek with a conscience, and the princess all ring true. But the way they act and talk doesn't. Educational film-flam that is bound to bore generations of students at school screenings.