The Wave (Die Welle)(2008)
dir. Dennis Gansel
Fascism in a high school classroom, in a week.
Where to watch: Free on KanopyLetterboxd ↗
A German high school teacher who is assigned to teach 'autocracy' runs a week-long classroom experiment: discipline, a uniform, a salute, a name. The class starts calling themselves The Wave, and within days the experiment stops being one. It is based on a real 1967 California classroom exercise and Todd Strasser's novel, moved to modern Germany.
Why it’s here
The film's whole argument is that a group of ordinary teenagers doesn't need history's villains to build a movement of belonging and exclusion, just a teacher, a uniform and a promise to be part of something. What's punk is that it is aimed at the audience's comfort: you are not immune. What's pedagogical is the experiment itself, which is easy to run, easy to discuss and hard to forget. It is the natural companion for How Fascism Works and They Thought They Were Free.
Where This Film Lives
- Setting
- Germany
Read Alongside
Books that share a topic, theme, or setting with this film.
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Fascism turns people into rhinos.
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Stasiland
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East Germany's Stasi, interviewed by a disbeliever.
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The Book Thief
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Nazi Germany. A girl steals books. Death is watching.
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The Hidden Persuaders
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Your desires were engineered. You just lived them.
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The Tin Drum
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At three, he stops growing and drums at adult lies.
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A Fever in the Heartland
Timothy Egan
The KKK had millions of members in the 1920s. In the Midwest.
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Absolute Beginners
Colin MacInnes
London 1958. Youth culture being born. The riots coming.
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