 I'm Filmen 3 Minuten. Guten Morgen class. This week is a special week. It's Project Week and our subject, Autocracy. Now, can anyone tell me what that means? Absolute monarchical rule? Not quite. A dictatorship? Eh, close. Maybe we should run a little experiment. Why don't we set up a group of our own? With me at its head. We can have a name, a uniform, a logo, even a salute. And find out, after one week, if we truly understand our subject in Dennis Gansel's 2008 German thriller The Wave, a loose remake of the 1981 made-for-television film, which in turn was based on the real-life social experiment known as the third wave by social history teacher Ron Jones in 1967. Set in an undisclosed high school in western Germany, the story follows maverick anarchist teacher Wenger, played by Jürgen Vogel, who, after being assigned to educate a class on the nature and appeal of fascism, decides to undertake a highly unorthodox experiment to prove how easily a small group of people could be manipulated. Using teaching methods designed to make the class conform to his will, whilst unintentionally exploiting the vulnerabilities of each student by giving them a newfound sense of pride and unity. And as Wenger's project slowly takes on a life of its own, we see certain members of his class embrace it out of joy and fear. From Tim, who accepts whole-heartedly The Wave's authoritarianism because of his earnest desire to be accepted, to Kevin, a popular pupil who only signs up when his popularity is in danger of slipping away. And whilst more and more students become part of the collective, The Wave sweeps away all distinctions, providing community and purpose whilst making those who are members of it feel special. Yet, sadly for Wenger, his shady syllabus becomes so successful that his group's image, identity and individuality slowly mutates into a sinister devoted cult, whose actions will eventually have dire consequences. Consequences which Director Gansel explores with a disturbing believability, despite the story setting taking place in Germany, a country that's now most people would assume is immune to such dangers given its past. However, the real power of The Wave lies not in its geography, but psychology, as the creeping appeal that autocratic regimes possess is gradually revealed to us as Wenger's project gathers momentum, an appeal where your individual sense, in essence, no longer needs to exist, but a question lingers in the back of our minds. What is the value of such unity? Of such a community, if it excludes, silences, threatens or demonizes those who think differently, or worse still, think for themselves. A question that history sadly knows only all too well, and for Wenger and his students, a lesson they will never forget. Classer and Klassen