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:

Gymnasium School | High School Teacher | Dead Boy | School Project | Shot Through The Mouth

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)
Nás vudce (Czech Republic) [cs]
Tehlikeli oyun (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]

Runtime:

101 min | Germany:110 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

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

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Rat Pack Filmproduktion GmbH

Trivia:

Based on the novel "The Wave" by Todd Strasser (under the pen name Morton Rhue), a fictionalized account of the "Third Wave" teaching experiment by Ron Jones that took place in a Cubberley High School history class in Palo Alto, California in April 1967.

Goofs:

Although set somewhere in western Germany, all policemen wear insignia of the state of Berlin.

Movie Connections:

Version of The Wave (1981) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Rock 'n' Roll High School

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.