Die Welle
..ist toll.
It was one of the most interesting movies I've seen lately. As part of German Film Festival, they screened Die Welle (The Wave) which won several nominations and awards abroad. The story is about social experiment in a high school somewhere in Germany based on a novel, "The Wave", by Todd Strasser.
The start of this experiment is a question: Can we start a dictatorship in Germany? Within a week, the students are experiencing some profound changed. Some of the students refused to be part of a movement which they perceive as fascism while most students see only the good things from the movement.
It reminds me how easy we could get caught in a cult or an autocracy. The end of the movies shows how the bad aspect of autocracy out weight its good aspect. This message is very relevant in Indonesia where there are more and more people behaving like fascists.
Be careful who you follow, because you never know where they will lead you...Mark Hancock - the Third Wave student
2 comments:
Frightening experiment indeed. I mean, frightening to know how easily we, that is most decent, people, can change to fanatic, intolerant and aggressive in-group activists.
It's a mere film. An illuminating one though. Because there has been genuine experiments proving people are willing to inflict lethal electric shocks to anonymous but visible "victims" just because they were asked/ordered to do so.
@colson it bothers me a great deal after finding out that it was based on a real experiment, that I couldnt sleep last night. Those students changed so much in 4 days (in the movie it was 5 days)! Not a year, not a month, just 4 crazy days!! Imagine how students change after years studying under teacher such as Ba'ashir.
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