Das Experiment
Encyclopedia
Das Experiment is a 2001 German
Cinema of Germany
Cinema in Germany can be traced back to the late 19th century. German cinema has made major technical and artistic contributions to film.Unlike any other national cinemas, which developed in the context of relatively continuous and stable political systems, Germany witnesses major changes to its...

 film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel
Oliver Hirschbiegel
Oliver Hirschbiegel is a German film director. His works include Das Experiment and the Oscar nominated Der Untergang.- Career :...

, about a social experiment, based on Mario Giordano
Mario Giordano (writer)
- Life :Giordano studied psychology and philosophy at the German University of Düsseldorf. Today Giordano lives in Cologne. He writes novels, short stories, child and youth books, film scripts and radio plays...

's novel Black Box, which resembles Philip Zimbardo
Philip Zimbardo
Philip George Zimbardo is an American psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is president of the Heroic Imagination Project...

's Stanford prison experiment
Stanford prison experiment
The Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was conducted from August 14th-20th, 1971, by a team of researchers led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University...

 of 1971.

Plot

In a newspaper advertisement, taxi driver Tarek Fahd discovers an invitation to participate in an experiment. 4000 German marks are offered to the participants of the experiment, in which a prison situation is simulated. The experiment is led by Professor Klaus Thon and his assistant, Dr. Jutta Grimm.

Tarek participates as a journalist while wearing a pair of glasses with a built-in mini-camera. Tarek has a car accident shortly before the experiment, after which he meets a woman called Dora. She spends the night with him and Tarek keeps thinking of her, shown in flashbacks.
The 20 volunteers are pronounced guards and prisoners and are being observed by a team of scientists. The prisoners lose their civil rights and have to obey certain rules, such as completely eating their meals. The guards are given nightsticks but are told not to use violence in any case. Each prisoner’s name is taken away and replaced by a number. Tarek (prisoner nr. 77) initially refuses to acknowledge the guards' superiority, by drinking the milk of one of his co-prisoners because of that prisoner's lactose intolerance
Lactose intolerance
Lactose intolerance, also called lactase deficiency or hypolactasia, is the inability to digest and metabolize lactose, a sugar found in milk...

 or by throwing his blanket out of his cell to provoke the guards. He befriends his cellmates, Steinhoff and Schütte. Psychological changes develop and the situation becomes a serious matter. The circumstances seem to be escalating after a few days. It becomes clear that certain limits are not just being reached but even surpassed.

The guards become excessively aware of their power and utilize the prisoners' fear to make them obedient. At both sides, one person is considered dominant. At the prisoners' side, this is Tarek, and at the guards’ side, it is the quiet guard Berus, a sadist, whose motto during the experiment is: "Humiliation is the only way we can solve these troubles." From that moment, the guards start to use more and more violence against the prisoners.
The scientists engage in a discussion whether or not to abort the experiment. Dr. Grimm suggests to put an end to the alarming situation, but Professor Thon refuses to stop the experiment until the violence has reached a maximum.

Dora meanwhile returns to Tarek's apartment and discovers his participation contract for the experiment. She surprises him by showing up for a visit day. Tarek pleads to the friendly guard Walther Bosch to secretly bring her a message. Berus suspects him, however. He arrests Bosch and tells Dora that everything is alright.
The situation becomes critical and more violence is involved. The prisoners are being abused and their self-esteem is drastically decreased. Most of the violence is against Tarek. First, the guards kidnap him from his cell late one night, order him to strip fully naked, shave his head bald and urinate on him. Later he is forced to clean the toilet with his own clothes. In the end, they lock him up in solitary confinement inside a "black box" resembling a safe. Schütte, reacting to this, is beaten severely, tied up, his mouth bound with duct tape and set on a chair. Later he suffocates to death due to his bloody nose drying up in addition to the duct tape on his mouth.

Bosch is beaten by the other guards for his "betrayal" and is put into prison. A scientist called Lars notices this and attempts to contact Professor Thon. The guards, who are aware that the professor cannot be reached, are convinced by Berus that the entire situation is a test, in which they want to see their reaction. They take over control of the facility and capture Lars, Dr. Grimm and the other scientists after which they are put into prison as well.

Dora comes to the facility a second time to speak to Tarek and is lured into a room by Berus, where he locks her up. The guard Eckert attempts to rape Dr. Grimm until Tarek stops him after he escapes out of the solitary confinement through the use of a screwdriver he found inside the "black box." Tarek knocks down Eckert and frees Lars, Bosch, Steinhoff, Dr. Grimm and the other prisoners. They manage to escape by removing one of the plates at the wall of one of the cells with the screwdrivers and flee. Meanwhile, Professor Thon hears Lars' desperate message in his voicemail and leaves for the facility. Steinhoff and Tarek stay behind to lock the way back in order to prevent Berus from coming after them. Professor Thon reaches the facility and demands an explanation from Eckert, after which the latter injures him by accident with a pistol. The fleeing prisoners are ambushed by the guards and trapped. Bosch, who could not keep up with the others, loses his sanity and kills Eckert with a fire extinguisher. Dora then escapes out of the room she was locked up in, and steals Eckert's gun. She injures one of the guards fighting Tarek and Steinhoff, leaving only Berus to fight them. Tarek incapacitates Berus, who is nearly choked to death by Steinhoff until Tarek convinces him not to kill Berus.

The movie ends with a news break, confirming two deaths (Schütte and Eckert) and three injured (Thon and two others). Both Berus and Thon will be put on trial.

Cast

  • Moritz Bleibtreu
    Moritz Bleibtreu
    Moritz Bleibtreu is a German actor.Bleibtreu was born in Munich, the son of actors Monica Bleibtreu and Hans Brenner, and the great-grand-nephew of the actress Hedwig Bleibtreu.Bleibtreu grew up in Hamburg...

     as Tarek Fahd - Prisoner #77
  • Christian Berkel
    Christian Berkel
    Christian Berkel is a German actor.Berkel was born in Berlin, Germany. His father was a military doctor.From the age of 14 he lived in Paris where he took drama lessons with Jean-Louis Barrault and Pierre Berlin...

     as Steinhoff - Prisoner #38
  • Oliver Stokowski as Schütte - Prisoner #82
  • Wotan Wilke Möhring
    Wotan Wilke Möhring
    -Life and work:He grew up in Herne. His father was an Army officer and his mother worked as a teacher. He has a sister and two brothers. One of them, Sönke Möhring is also an actor....

     as Joe - Prisoner #69
  • Stephan Szasz as Prisoner #53
  • Polat Dal as Prisoner #40
  • Danny Richter as Prisoner #21
  • Ralf Müller as Prisoner #15
  • Markus Rudolf as Prisoner #74
  • Peter Fieseler as Prisoner #11
  • Thorsten J.H. Dersch as Prisoner #86
  • Sven Grefer as Prisoner #94
  • Justus von Dohnányi
    Justus von Dohnányi
    Justus von Dohnányi is a German actor. His father is the German conductor, Christoph von Dohnányi and his grandfather was the German jurist and member of the German resistance, Hans von Dohnanyi.-Biographical details:...

     as Berus - Strafvollzugsbeamter / Guard
  • Nicki von Tempelhoff as Kamps - Guard
  • Timo Dierkes as Eckert - Guard
  • Antoine Monot Jr. as Bosch - Guard
  • Lars Gärtner as Renzel - Guard
  • Jacek Klimontko as Gläser - Guard
  • Markus Klauk as Stock - Guard
  • Ralph Püttmann as Amandy - Guard
  • Edgar Selge as Professor Dr. Klaus Thon - Wissenschaftler / Scientist
  • Andrea Sawatzki
    Andrea Sawatzki
    Andrea Sawatzki is a German actress. Since 2002 she has starred in the Hessischer Rundfunk version of the popular television crime series Tatort as police inspector Charlotte Sänger....

     as Dr. Jutta Grimm - Scientist
  • Philipp Hochmair as Lars - Scientist
  • Klaus Spinnler as Assistant
  • Tristan Vostry as Assistant
  • Maren Eggert
    Maren Eggert
    Maren Eggert is a German actress. She is best known for playing the role of Frieda Jung in the German TV series Tatort. Another notable appearance of her is the role of Dora in the 2001 film Das Experiment, opposite Moritz Bleibtreu...

     as Dora - The Others
  • André Jung
    André Jung
    André Jung is a Brazilian drummer and journalist, best known for his performances in the band Ira!. He has also been a member of Titãs, although he has released only one album with them. Curiously, the drummer that he replaced in Ira! went to play with Titãs, with whom he played with until 2010...

     as Ziegler - The Others
  • Uwe Rohde as Hans - The Others
  • Heiner Lauterbach
    Heiner Lauterbach
    Heiner Lauterbach is a German actor.- Life and work :Heiner Lauterbach was married to German actress Katja Flint who is the mother of his son Oscar . Later he had a relationship with Jenny Elvers. Since 7 September 2001 he has been married to Viktoria Skaf. They have two children: Maya and Vito...

    as Dennis - The Voices
  • Fatih Akin
    Fatih Akin
    Fatih Akın is a German film director, screenwriter and producer of Turkish descent.- Personal life :Akın was born in 1973 in Hamburg to parents of Turkish ethnicity...

     as Taxi Driver - The Voices
  • Christiane Gerboth as Newscaster - The Voices

Production

The film was inspired by the events of the Stanford prison experiment
Stanford prison experiment
The Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was conducted from August 14th-20th, 1971, by a team of researchers led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University...

 in the US. It is based on the novel Black Box by Mario Giordano
Mario Giordano (writer)
- Life :Giordano studied psychology and philosophy at the German University of Düsseldorf. Today Giordano lives in Cologne. He writes novels, short stories, child and youth books, film scripts and radio plays...

.

Release

It premiered on 7 March 2001 in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and was released with a theatrical release in Germany one day later. In the UK it was released on 22 March 2002 as The Experiment and in the United States on 20 September 2002.

Remake

The Experiment, is an American 2010 remake of the film directed by Paul Scheuring
Paul Scheuring
Paul T. Scheuring is an American screenwriter and director for films and television shows. His work includes the 2003 film A Man Apart and, more notably, the creation of the television drama Prison Break, for which he is also credited as an executive producer and Head Writer.-Biography:Scheuring...

 and stars Adrien Brody
Adrien Brody
Adrien Brody is an American actor and film producer. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring in Roman Polanski's The Pianist . Winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2003 at age 29, he is the youngest actor to do so...

, Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker
Forest Steven Whitaker is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television...

, Maggie Grace
Maggie Grace
Margaret Grace Denig , best known as Maggie Grace, is an American actress. Originally from Worthington, Ohio, she dropped out of high school to move to Los Angeles with her mother after her parents' divorce. While struggling financially, she landed her first role as the title character in the...

, and Cam Gigandet
Cam Gigandet
Cam Joslin Gigandet is an American actor, whose roles have included Twilight, The O.C., Never Back Down, The Roommate, Burlesque and Priest.- Career :...

. Filming began in Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

 in July 2009. When the film was still shooting, the North American
North American
North American generally refers to an entity, people, group, or attribute of North America, especially of the United States and Canada together.-Culture:*North American English, a collective term used to describe American English and Canadian English...

 distribution rights were acquired by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. The company specializes in acquiring and producing films for a wide variety of distribution platforms, but the group's main focus is non-theatrical markets .SPWA was formerly a division of Sony Pictures Home...

, which released the film straight-to-video in the United States on September 21, 2010 through its Stage 6 Films
Stage 6 Films
Stage 6 Films is a label created by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions in fall 2007 that acquires, produces and distributes 10-15 low budget films and direct-to-DVD releases per year. It is Columbia TriStar's fifth specialty label. Overall, it's the 7th theatrical label by Sony Pictures...

label.

External links

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