Das Experiment

Das Experiment English The Experiment is a 2001 German thriller film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. It is based on Mario Giordanos novel Black Box and deals with a social experiment which resembles Philip Zimbardos Stanford prison experiment of 1971.

Tarek participates as a journalist while wearing a pair of glasses with a builtin minicamera. Tarek has a car accident shortly before the experiment, after which he meets a woman called Dora. She spends the night with him and Tarek keeps thinking of her, shown in flashbacks. Thevolunteers are pronounced guards and prisoners,prisoners andguards, and are being observed by a team of scientists.In the experiment, the prisoners lose their civil rights and have to obey arbitrary rules, such as completely eating their meals. The guards are given nightsticks, but are told not to use violence in any case. Each prisoners name is taken away and replaced by a number. Tarek prisoner nr. 77 initially refuses to acknowledge the guards superiority by drinking the milk of one of his coprisoners because of that prisoners lactose intolerance, or by throwing his blanket out of his cell to provoke the guards. He befriends his cellmates, Steinhoff and Schtte. Psychological changes develop and the situation deteriorates. The circumstances seem to be escalating after a few days. It becomes clear that limits are not only being reached but being surpassed when the guards kidnap Tarek from his cell late in the night, order him to strip fully naked, shave his head bald and urinate on him. ........

Source: Wikipedia