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Film: Das Experiment
Release date: 4th May 2009
Certificate: 18
Running time: 114 mins
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Berkel, Oliver Stokowski, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Stephan Szasz
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Studio: In2Film
Format: DVD
Country: Germany
Oliver Hirschbiegels’ debut film, Das Experiment, caused a sensation on its release in 2001. Based on Mario Giordano’s book Black Box, the story draws its influence from the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment. The film gives a chilling account of the susceptibility of ordinary people to violence and corruption.
Since losing his job as a journalist, Tarek Fahd (Moritz Bleibtreu) has become a taxi driver. When he finds an advert in a newspaper offering 4000 Marks to participate in an experiment in a simulated prison, he uses the opportunity to write an undercover exposé of the experiment for his former boss.
A car crash on the way home from work unexpectedly brings Dora (Maren Eggert) into his life. When Tarek offers to take her home, the two spend the night together. Despite their instant attraction for each other they part ways - Dora to her house in Canada, Tarek to the lab.
Upon arrival at the simulated prison, Tarek meets the men he will spend the next two weeks with. Amiable and relaxed, they are all normal people from different backgrounds, with unremarkable jobs ranging from a chief executive to a school teacher. The scientists, Dr Thon (Edgar Selge) and Dr Grimm (Andrea Sawatzki), inform them they will be randomly separated into two groups: guards and prisoners. The guards must exercise total control over the prisoners but are prohibited from using violence, despite being provided with truncheons and hand cuffs. The prisoners are stripped of all their clothes, which are replaced with smocks, and they are assigned numbers before being taken to their cells where they are confined for the duration of the experiment.
The initial camaraderie among the men is quickly replaced with paranoia and hostility as the two groups struggle for dominance. The lines between reality and their own fictitious roles become blurred beyond distinction as the film reaches its shocking conclusion…
Despite its harrowing and unyielding nature, Das Experiment is a profoundly brave and challenging film. A number of the punishments inflicted on the prisoners – such as being locked in solitary confinement and being stripped naked - were actually performed by college students in the real Stanford Prison Experiment which took place in 1971 in America. The more extreme violence that appears towards the end did not actually occur in Philip Zimbardo’s experiment. Rather, Das Experiment is a representation of what could have happened if it had lasted the full two weeks. In actuality, psychologists terminated the experiment in just six days after the students began to show signs of depression and disturbed behaviour. The film should not therefore be seen as a factual account of the events that took place at the Californian University (a mistake which is often made) but as a much more complex tale about human nature.
Unlike many filmmakers, Oliver Hirschbiegel rejects the redundant approach of portraying characters as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and leaves the audience to determine the answers for themselves. He faced harsh criticism after the release of Downfall – about Hitler’s last days in his bunker - which also refused to depict its major characters as two dimensional or simply evil. Hirschbiegels’ unflinching ability to shine a light in dark places by showing the reality of people who commit horrific acts is what makes him unique. A poignant link to Nazism it blatant from the outset, at one point Schütte (Oliver Stokowski) accuses Berus (Justus von Dohnányi) of being a Nazi pig. The speed at which the guards adapt to treating the prisoners as the enemy also suggests a parallel. But the director’s goal is not to demonise Germans. Rather he is intent on communicating a universal susceptibility human beings have of losing their moral judgment. Confronting the truth head on without self deception is the only way to safeguard against atrocity.
It’s not all bleak, however. The love scenes between Dora and Tarek are genuinely beautiful - their sensual tenderness, which appears in flashbacks, the only comfort to Tarek when he’s locked in his cell. Some scenes, where they appear to each other in dreams and visions, while Tarek is confined, are only made plausible by the actors on-screen chemistry, and might otherwise look like devices to move the plot along. Tarek and Schütte’s relationship is equally moving - Stokowski’s performance is positively heart-warming.
What stands out most in this film is the subtle little hints into the characters’ personality, flaws and insecurities that are inconspicuous in their everyday lives, but become inflated and dangerous in the setting of the prison: Eckert (Timo Dierkes) letches on Dr Grimm and later tries to rape her; whilst guards laugh at Berus’s body odour, taunts later repeated by Tarek which results in Berus dragging him from his cell and urinating on him, mockingly asking him, “Now who smells?”
There is not a great deal of music in the film, however the Linkin Park track ‘One Step Closer’ played at the beginning sounds very misplaced as a sort of inelegant attempt to foreshadow the coming tensions. The swelling emotive music in the last scene somehow detracts from the utter devastation - the closing moments would have been much more poignant if they had been silent. These, though, are small imperfections in what is a well crafted film.
Thought provoking and utterly engaging, Das Experiment dextrously sweeps between moving, terrifying, life affirming and back again. Essential viewing for all film lovers. JMA
Film: Run Lola Run
Release date: 10th April 2000
Certificate: 15
Running time: 77 mins
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri, Armin Rohde
Genre: Crime/Thriller
Studio: Sony
Format: DVD
Country: Germany
Director Tom Tykwer’s fast-paced and multi-award-winning thriller centres around the choices we make, and how they affect our fate.
Lola (Potente) receives a worried phone call off her boyfriend Manni (Bleibtreu). He explains that after a diamond deal, he lost 100,000 DM belonging to his boss, and if he doesn’t get it in twenty minutes then he will be killed. Lola tells him she will get there and will help him, to which he replies that if she isn’t there in time he will rob the department store across the street.
Lola now has twenty minutes to find 100,000 DM and save her boyfriend. What ensues is a frantic run through town met with choices leading to possible alternatives and the ultimate outcomes of the day…
Believe it or not, the film is essentially only twenty minutes in length. That is the plot of the film. Once the first twenty minutes are up the audience is taken back to the start to relive it all again, only this time different choices are made which affect the final outcome. This happens three times in total, and also includes a brief glimpse into the characters’ lives prior to these frantic twenty minutes.
As Lola runs through the three alternatives she encounters various people along the way whose stories are glimpsed through snapshots and, like Lola’s, differ each time. In all variations, she tries to find help from her father, who is also going through his own different versions of events which intertwine with Lola’s. As with all the minor characters his future is also subject to choices and fate relating to Lola.
Foreign cinema is always producing films that aren’t necessarily what you would expect. Unlike a lot of the stuff from Hollywood it is made mainly through passion and an idea; not just to get bums on seats. Occasionally though, a film does succeed in being both fantastically well made and massively popular at the same time. In terms of this film, it is very different not only to Hollywood films, but to other foreign films as well. The idea of the film is very clever, and is pushed throughout, which makes the film very precise - and means that every single shot is important. Every scene includes another reminder that instils the viewer to think of their own life and the choices around them.
The film uses a wide variety of shooting techniques, from dolly shots and hand-held camera to snapshot-like jump cuts and even animation in parts. All of this could seem rather hectic, but within the film it does work. The fast cutting and tracking places the viewer in amongst the action, and really conveys the urgency of the situation.
It is a real credit to the acting, the emotion we feel for the characters. Not much is learnt about them over the three versions of the twenty minutes, and with such a short running time, you wouldn’t expect to care about them so much. By the third alternative, Lola runs through the now recognisable scenes and streets towards her fate and, despite having already seen a number of the shots, there is no boredom in it - in fact it is more enthralling.
The soundtrack to the film fits perfectly, and acts as a catalyst pushing you through streets as Lola runs towards her destiny. The film is helped further by incredibly good acting all-round. Bleibtreu puts in a very good performance as Manni, however, it is Potente who definitely steals the show as Lola. All the supporting cast are solid, especially Lola’s father who has to deal with a bank robbery, a pregnancy and an affair in the various alternatives.
The blending of the uniqueness with a blockbuster feel is the real key to the films success. This makes it accessible to a very wide audience, including those who normally shy away from anything with subtitles. In this sense, it is a very important film as, for some, it could be the way in to a completely new world of cinema.
A very well thought out piece of cinema, fantastically shot, with an excellent story. AH
Film: Chiko
Release date: 28th June 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Ozgur Yildrim
Starring: Denis Moschitto, Volkan Ozcan, Moritz Bleibtreu, Reyhan Sahin, Fahri Ogun Yardim
Genre: Crime/Drama
Studio: E1/Vertigo
Format: DVD
Country: Germany
Chiko is Ozgur Yildirim’s debut feature. A look at one young man’s attempts to fight his way to the top of Hamburg’s drug trade, Yildirim, has described his film as "my Scarface set in a Hamburg suburban ghetto." Lofty ambitions indeed, and a reference point that is plainly apparent.
Chiko is a young Turk living in Hamburg. Like Tony Montana, Chiko wants to rise to the very top of the drug trade in the country that he has adopted as his own, and he is willing to engage in any acts necessary to help him climb the ladder. Along with his best friend, Tibet, he begins working for Brownie (Moritz Bleibtreu), a local gangster and drug kingpin.
At first all goes well for the two friends, as they find themselves afforded the respect and fear they desire. In true movie gangland style, though, their paths diverge, and while Chiko is taken under Brownie’s wing and elevated to higher status, Tibet gets greedy, forgets his place and bites the hand that feeds him by skimming cash off the top of Brownie’s profits. The resulting punishment leaves Chiko with a dilemma. Avenge his best friend and give up all he’s worked so hard for, or stay loyal to Brownie and turn his back on one of the last remaining connections with his ‘real’ life?
If the plot of this film sounds all too familiar, don’t panic. That just means you’ve seen at least one other gangster movie in your life. There is nothing original about this film, but perhaps it’s best to assume that’s deliberate. Almost every facet of this movie has its origin in US films we’ve all seen. Some of them are even underlined and highlighted for us, metaphorically.
Brownie is a man not to be crossed, and the punishments he metes out on those who do wouldn’t be out of place in the Rambo movies he so adores. Chiko will discuss identity and faith with a Turkish prostitute Meryem in a restaurant that is every inch the stereotypical American ‘50s Diner. Tibet’s primary ambition in life is to own souped-up, modified cars with his name all over them, just like those he sees in The Fast And The Furious. Later, when he becomes increasingly isolated and enraged, he expresses his sense of betrayal by pulling a gun on his own mirror image and shaving off his hair, before going on a gun-toting revenge rampage. These are not references that need explanation.
These déjà vu feelings even extend to the main character. Isa Oikar (Denis Moschitto), is, like many US characters before him, a young man made up of contradictions. He is a low-level thug and drug dealer, but also conflicted and loving father to a young girl. He is a Turk, but his home is in Hamburg. He is a Muslim but his name is Arabic for Jesus. His nickname, Chiko (tattooed on his arm) makes him sound like a Hispanic gang member on America's mean streets, but his empty rhetoric about respect and power ensure he comes across as an anachronistic parody of the American gangsters he so obviously aspires to.
The director, however, seems less interested in following his American blueprints than in using them to show how the new Germany assimilates - sometimes imperfectly - all manner of influences. When Chiko and his gang set up shop in a flat to sell their product, we see representatives from all aspects of German society coming to them in need of “kick ass weed.” Many of them are obvious versions of tried and trusted characters and stereotypes, and perhaps this mirror image is exactly what the director was aiming for.
Chiko is a hard-hitting snapshot of the brutal underbelly of modern life. As a study of the food chain in the illegal narcotics trade, and even as a localised variant in genre cinema, Chiko, as a whole, delivers a quality product. Moschitto, however, is almost as unable to carry the film as his character is unable to cope with the pressures around him. With a maximum of two facial expressions (mean and moody resentment or furrow browed nervousness), he lacks the necessary charisma to make other characters, and unfortunately, viewers, invest in him. This means the trust and friendship which Brownie so quickly (and crucially) bestows upon Chiko is never really plausible. The more seasoned Bleibtreu, by contrast, oozes psychopathic charisma that, while entertaining, serves to further expose his co-star's shortcomings.
A watchable film, in which the prerequisites of the genre are mixed (if not seamlessly, then at least enjoyably) with the ethnic idiosyncrasies of its setting and characters - it is, unfortunately, let down by a disappointing performance from its lead. PD
