Das Experiment
| Das Experiment | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Oliver Hirschbiegel |
| Produced by | Marc Conrad Norbert Preuss Friedrich Wildfeuer |
| Written by |
Mario Giordano Don Bohlinger Christoper Darnstädt |
| Based on |
Black Box by Mario Giordano |
| Starring |
Moritz Bleibtreu Justus von Dohnányi Christian Berkel Oliver Stokowski Andrea Sawatzki |
| Music by | Alexander von Bubenheim |
| Cinematography | Rainer Klausmann |
| Edited by | Hans Funck |
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Production
company |
Fanes Film
Senator Film Produktion Seven Pictures Typhoon |
| Distributed by | Senator Film (Germany) The Samuel Goldwyn Company (US) |
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Release date
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Running time
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119 minutes |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
| Box office | US$11.6 million |
Das Experiment (English: The Experiment) is a 2001 German thriller film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. It is based on Mario Giordano's novel Black Box and deals with a social experiment which resembles Philip Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment of 1971.
While reading a newspaper advertisement, taxi driver Tarek Fahd discovers an invitation to participate in an experiment, in which 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. He decides to join in.
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, 12 prisoners and 8 guards, and are being observed by a team of scientists.
In the experiment, the prisoners lose their civil rights and have to obey arbitrary 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, 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 deteriorates. The circumstances seem to be escalating after a few days. It becomes clear that limits are not only being reached but being surpassed when the guards kidnap Tarek from his cell late in the night, order him to strip fully naked, shave his head bald and urinate on him.
The guards become excessively aware of their power and use the prisoners' fear to make them obedient. On both sides, one person is considered dominant. On the prisoners' side, this is Tarek, and on 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 on, 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.
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