Experiment 2: The Wave

A special project is being carried out in the German gymnasium: during the week, students will study one of the political systems of their choice. Teacher Rainer Wenger ( Jürgen Vogel ) would like to conduct a course of Anarchy that is close to him in spirit, but he gets Autocracy . Students who came to class do not believe that dictatorship can be established in modern Germany . Wenger begins an experiment designed to show how easily the masses can be manipulated.

To begin with, he replaces students so that the excellent students sit next to the underperforming and can help them; thus, the class as a whole will show better results. Under the new rules, students should contact him “Mr. Wenger” ( German: Herr Wenger ) instead of the usual “Rainer”, answer the teacher’s questions only with his permission, and get up and speak briefly and clearly. They should wear uniforms - jeans and white shirts.

Only two girls - Mona ( Amelie Kiefer ) and Caro ( Jennifer Ulrich ) - refuse to wear uniforms and leave the classroom. The rest of the students accept the new rules and join the experiment, they tell friends about an interesting course and some students of other courses move to the Wenger class. The new movement receives the name “Wave”, one of the students comes up with an emblem, the other creates a website, the third makes stickers that everyone is happy to paste around the city.

"Wave" is gaining more and more fame. The participants in the movement support each other and oppress those who are not with them, many other students join them. Only Karo is trying to fight the movement. She prints out flyers and arranges them at school. This causes dissatisfaction among students. Caro's friend, Marco ( Max Rimelt ), is trying to protect her, but, under pressure from the group, gives up and promises to talk to his girlfriend.

Most impressed with the new system is Tim ( Frederick Lau ) - a guy who feels lonely and unnecessary both at home and among peers. Only by becoming a member of the movement does he gain the support of like-minded people. Tim burns his clothes with logos of famous brands (during the lesson it was discussed that brand owners act only for their own benefit and do not feel social responsibility), at the risk of climbing into the building under construction to draw the Wave logo on it. Tim buys a gun and invites Wenger to become his bodyguard. Wenger explains that he does not need a bodyguard, but invites Tim to visit. After Rainer has to escort a guest who does not understand that he is already tired of the owners, Tim remains to spend the night in the yard.

The water polo school team coached by Wenger meets with another school. “Wave” gathers fans, each visitor is given a white shirt with a logo. Caro and Mona scatter leaflets again. The participant of the "Wave" Sinan ( Eliash M'Barek ) starts a fight with the enemy, dragging him under water. Wenger has to jump into the pool to separate them. At the same time, fans start a fight.

After the game, Rainer quarrels with his wife over what is happening with the Wave, and Marco swears with Karo. In the heat of a quarrel, Marco hits Caro. Concerned about what is happening, Marco comes to Wenger and asks to stop the experiment. He promises to solve everything and gathers all the participants of the experiment the next day in the school hall.

When all the members of the Wave gather, Wenger orders the doors to be closed so that no one can stop them. He reads the writings of his students about the “Wave”, and then describes their future capabilities, calls for continued movement and conquer all of Germany. Only Marco objects to these ideas, the rest of the guys enthusiastically listen to the calls of Wenger and applaud them. Wenger sets Marco on his former friends, when they drag him onto the stage, he suggests coming up with what to do with the “traitor”. After that, he asks what they could have reached by his order. Could they kill a man? Rainer reminds students of the question that was posed at the beginning of the project - is dictatorship possible in Germany? He explains how easily they all succumbed to influence and calls the “Wave” an example of dictatorship, fascism .

The project went too far, Wenger dissolves the movement and ends the meeting. The students begin to diverge, but Tim cannot accept that there is no more movement. He begins to threaten Wenger with a pistol, injures one of his students, and then commits suicide. In the final scene, Wenger is arrested by the police, his students and wife looking at it in despair.

The soundtrack for the film was released on March 14, 2008 ^[1] on EMI Germany and contains tracks by bands such as The Subways , Kilians , Johnossi , Digitalism and The Hives along with the EL * KE version of Rock 'n' Roll High School » Ramones from the film of the same name . The title track "Garden Of Growing Hearts" is performed by the Berlin Empty Trash .

The original tracks were written by Heiko Maile .

• 2008 - 2 nominations for the European Film Awards : Best Film (Audience Award) and Best Actor ( Jürgen Vogel )
• 2008 - 2 German Film Awards : Bronze Award for Best Film ( Christian Becker ) and Best Actor in a Supporting Role ( Frederick Lau )
• 2008 - 2 nominations for the German Film Awards : Golden Prize for Best Film ( Christian Becker ) and Best Editing ( Uli Kristen )
• 2008 - nomination for the Grand Prize of the jury of the Sundance Film Festival ( Dennis Hansel )

• The Experiment is a 2001 German film, based in part on real events from the Stanford Prison Experiment .
• " Made in the USSR " is a 1990 film about the construction of a totalitarian dictatorship in a Soviet school.
• “ Before the First Blood ” is a 1989 film showing how child cruelty develops in a game situation.

• Official movie website (German)
• Experiment 2: The Wave at the Internet Movie Database
• Experiment 2: The Wave (English) on allmovie
• Experiment 2: The Wave on the Rotten Tomatoes website
• Official website of students participating in the Third Wave