Summaries

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.

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?—napierslogs

Details

Keywords
  • experiment
  • dictatorship
  • school project
  • social experiment
  • autocracy
Genres
  • Thriller
  • Drama
Release date Mar 12, 2008
Motion Picture Rating (MPA) Not Rated
Countries of origin Germany France
Language German
Filming locations Berlin, Germany
Production companies Constantin Film Rat Pack Filmproduktion B.A. Produktion

Box office

Budget $5000000
Gross worldwide $32350637

Tech specs

Runtime 1h 47m
Color Color
Sound mix Dolby Digital
Aspect ratio 2.35 : 1

Synopsis

When Rainer Wegner (Jürgen Vogel), a popular high school teacher, finds himself relegated to teaching autocracy, instead of anarchy, as part of the school's project week, he is less than enthusiastic. So are his students, who greet the prospect of studying fascism yet again with apathetic grumbling: The Nazis sucked. We get it. Struck by the teenagers complacency and unwitting arrogance, Rainer devises an unorthodox experiment. But his hastily conceived lesson in social orders and the power of unity soon grows a life of its own.

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