The Wave (2008)

A high school teacher's 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.

Director:

Dennis Gansel

Writers:

Ron Jones (short story and original protocols) (as William Ron Jones), Johnny Dawkins (screenplay "The Wave")

Stars:

Jürgen Vogel, Frederick Lau, Max Riemelt

9 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

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

Storyline

High school teacher, Rainer Wenger, may be popular with the students, but he's also unorthodox. He's forced to teach autocracy for the school's project week. He's less than enthusiastic at first, but the response of the students is surprising to say the least. He forces the students to become more invested in the prospect of self rule, and soon the class project has its own power and eerily starts to resemble Germany's past. Can Wegner and his class realize what's happening before the horrors start repeating themselves?

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Plot Keywords:

school gymnasium | autocracy | dictatorship | germany | experiment | 

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Taglines:

IT WILL THRILL YOU. IT WILL CARRY YOU AWAY. IT WILL CHANGE YOU. IT WILL BREAK YOU

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Constantin Film [Germany]

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

27 May 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Wave

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

€5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$3,151,023 (Germany), 16 March 2008, Limited Release

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rat Pack Filmproduktion, Constantin Film, B.A. Produktion

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Cameo: [Dennis Gansel] The guy Dennis (Jacob Matschenz) talks to at the bar, who is later seen making out with Marco's mother.

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Goofs

(at around 15 mins) The teacher is formally called Rainer Wenger, although informally he uses his first name is Rainer, among his students initially and later his surname during the project, Wenger. One might think the principal would use his first name when talking to him, but in Germany when adult colleagues speak to each other, they use their last name when talking to each other, i.e. Herr Wenger.

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Quotes

Rainer Wenger: So you don't think there could be another dictatorship in Germany?
Jens: No, we are too enlightened now.

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Crazy Credits

Opening and closing credits appear as graffiti.

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Connections

Referenced in Kiru ra kiru: KILL la KILL: Azami no gotoku toge areba (2013)

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Soundtracks

Tick Tick Boom
Written by Nicholaus Arson (as Randy Fitzsimmons)
Performed by The Hives
©Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

User Reviews

Good twists / no black & white opinion

This is a German film (subtitled) about a school project looking at autocracy (a la Nazi Germany). In order for the teacher to persuade his pupils that autocracy remains a real threat to democracy, he persuades them to take part in a class dictatorship. The key difference between this and your average school classroom is that he convinces the pupils not just to obey but also to want his every command. Of course the project turns bad and things get scary.

What I liked about the film was that it did not treat the pupils as "just kids"; they had brains, opinions, and their own ethics too. It is not a very black and white in it's opinion, you could draw some distinct opinion from the film but I suggest that there are several different opinions that are equally as valid. It keeps you guessing what is going to happen & even deliberately misleads you.