Das Experiment

Inspired by the Stanford Prison Experiment (which took place at the US college in 1971), Oliver Hirschbiegel's directorial debut is a largely fictionalised look at the events surrounding that infamous investigation into the psychology of prison life. Bleibtreu plays Tarek, a part time journalist in desperate need of a story, who jumps at the opportunity to participate in the experiment. At first, the men posing as guards and those acting as prisoners (of which there are 20) regard the experiment skeptically. Yet in his eagerness to get a story, Tarek decides to liven things up a bit, unaware that his actions will have a devastating effect on the mindsets of all of the participants. An unrelenting atmosphere of doom surrounds most of the action in Das Experiment, and Hirschbiegel's terse, lean style of direction captures the claustrophobia associated with prison life very effectively. Similarly, his actors are excellent, especially Bleibtreu as the self-serving hack, but the emotionally draining nature of the premise may well prove too taxing for some. Harrowing but extraordinarily well executed.