The Wave

Sorry for the delay in updates, Ivonne has been away for a week, and other than playing on my new Wii game, GT Pro Series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GT_Pro_Series) which is basic, but fun (and very cheap!), having the occasional pint at the pub, reading about Quantum physics (I kid you not), and coming third in poker, I have not done a lot.

But last night we went to the Picturehouse and watched "The Wave", a recent German film about an experiment carried out in the 60's at an American college. The story is retold in modern Germany, and although based on real events has a much more shocking conclusion than the real experiment.



The story of the film, in brief, is a high school teacher wants to teach his pupils about autocracy, but some of his pupils say that it is a waste of time, nothing like fascism could ever thrive again in Germany. The teacher (brilliantly played by Jürgen Vogel) decides to try an experiment, and through small things (getting pupils to stand when talking, adopting a uniform and name) slowly the pupils get drawn into "The Wave" and it takes on a life of its own.

The film not only shows how easy fascist regimes can take hold, and the strange comfort some personality types take from it, but also the difficulty of resistance against these kind of groups, the main character for me in the film is Karo (Jennifer Ulrich), who, despite liking the teacher taking the class simply cannot take part in the experiment (despite initially being keen), she and a friend become the sole resistance against the class, and immediately see the dangers of what is happening. The got me thinking, are some people more immune to fascist or cultic movements, and if so why?

Certainly a lot to think about in this film, and if you are interested then it is on again tonight and tomorrow night at 6.15pm at the Exeter Picturehouse.