Prisoners and Guards, a Mindless ‘Experiment’

“Das Experiment” is a revved-up potboiler that suggests, intentionally or otherwise, that all it takes for ordinary Germans to reveal their inner Nazi is to give them power over others. Amazingly, it has been taken seriously enough to cop some festival prizes; less surprisingly, it has been a huge hit on home ground.

Working from an adaptation of the Mario Giordano novel “Black Box,” director Oliver Hirschbiegel punches up every development to the max, constantly telegraphing the plot; his energy, however, never flags as he goes for the visceral.

The ferociously intense Dr. Klaus Thon (Edgar Selge), made in the Josef Mengele mold, has placed a newspaper ad: “Test Participants Needed--for 14 Days Experiment in Mock Prison.” The idea is that of the 20 men selected, eight will be guards and 12 prisoners. The supposed purpose is to discover how the guards will maintain order, ostensibly without resorting to violence, and how the inmates will respond. Naturally, Dr. Thon hopes for behavior that goes to extremes.

He is not disappointed. Moritz Bleibtreu’s Tarek Fahd is a headstrong taxi driver, a dropout from journalism who thinks he can get back into the game and make money at the same time by becoming one of the participants for an expose--shades of Sam Fuller’s classic “Shock Corridor.” He will be armed with a video camera disguised as a pair of spectacles.

Rebellious by nature, Fahd, designated Prisoner No. 77, stirs trouble to beef up his story. He baits the guards’ natural leader, the uptight Berus (Justus von Dohnanyi), by suggesting he’s a closeted gay. The power struggle between guards and convicts becomes real to the participants with predictable and repellent displays of brutality and humiliation. Dr. Thon is ecstatic.

The cat-and-mouse game proceeds along conventional lines; the plot is full of holes. It’s made even less credible by a subplot involving a romance that Tarek began with a woman (Maren Eggert) whom he met just before beginning the experiment. Except for her amply displayed figure, Eggert brings nothing to her thankless role.

Bleibtreu, who co-starred with Franke Potenta in “Run Lola Run,” has a smoldering presence that has made him a star. When his head is shaved, Bleibtreu comes across as Germany’s answer to Vin Diesel. The other characters are stereotypes, played with relish by a staunch supporting cast.

The film’s high-tech prison block is well designed, and Rainer Klausmann’s cinematography is dynamic. As an exploitation picture, “Das Experiment” is mindlessly potent; subtitles are no guarantee of sophistication and subtlety.

*

Unrated. Times guidelines: Extreme violence, torture, humiliation, brutality, bloodshed, language, sex and nudity.

‘Das Experiment’

Moritz Bleibtreu...Tarek Fahd,

Prisoner No. 77

Justus von Dohnanyi...Berus

Edgar Selge...Dr. Klaus Thon

Maren Eggert...Dora

A Samuel Goldwyn Films release of a Senator Film production. Director Oliver Hirschbiegel. Producers Norbert Preuss, Marc Conrad, Fritz Wildfeuer. Screenplay Mario Giordano, Christoph Danstadt, Don Bohlinger; based on the novel “Black Box” by Giordano. Cinematographer Rainer Klausmann. Editor Hans Funck. Music Alexander van Bubenheim. Costumes Claudia Bobsin. Art director Andrea Kessler. Prison design Uli Hanisch. In German, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes.

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