Country: Germany
Year: 2008
Duration: 93'
A high school teacher, Rainer Wenger, comes up with an experiment
in order to explain to his students how totalitarian governments work.
As their leader he asks the students to call him Mr Wegner, chooses
the motto, creates a logo and names the group “The Wave” adding
a secret sign. A role-playing game with tragic results begins. Within
a few days, what began with harmless notions like discipline and
community builds into a real movement that soon erupts into violence.
The teacher decides to break off the experiment but it’s too late: the
wave is out of control.
“I always wondered, could that kind of thing still happen to us?
In modern-day Germany, which is so liberal and enlightened, where
we spend so much time talking about Nazism and the Third Reich?
Would we still fall for it? That was a question I found so fascinating
I wanted to look into it.”
Biography
film director
Dennis Gansel
Dennis Gansel (Hannover, Germany, 1973), while at Munich Film School, shot the short films The Wrong Trip (1995) and Living Dead (1996), both produced by his fellow student Christian Becker and won the F.W. Murnau Short Film Prize. After graduating from film school, he shot his debut film, The Phantom, a political thriller which went on to win a Jupiter Award, the Adolf Grimme Prize and the 3SAT Audience Award in 2000 for Best TV Movie. 2001 saw his theatrical debut with Girls on Top and in 2004 he realized Before the Fall which won the Audience Award at the Hamptons Film Festival in New York, the Best Film Award at Viareggio European Film Festival, and a Bavarian Film Prize 2005 for Best Direction.
FILMOGRAFIA
The Wrong Trip (cm, 1995), Living Dead (cm, 1996), Im Auftrag des Herren (A Mission from God, cm, 1998), Das Phantom (The Phantom, 1999), Napola - Elite für den Führer
(Before the Fall, 2004), Die Welle (L’onda, 2008).
Cast
& Credits
regia/director Dennis Gansel
soggetto/story da un racconto di/from a short story by William Ron Jones e dall’omonimo sceneggiato di/and upon the teleplay of the same title by Johnny Dawkins, Ron Birnbach
sceneggiatura/screenplay Dennis Gansel, Peter Thorwarth
fotografia/cinematography Torsten Breuer
montaggio/film editing Ueli Christen
scenografia/production design Knut Loewe
costumi/costume design Ivana Milos
suono/sound Patrick Veigel, Heiko Maile
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Jürgen Vogel (Rainer Wenger), Frederick Lau (Tim), Max Riemelt (Marco), Jennifer Ulrich (Karo), Christiane Paul (Anke Wenger), Elyas M’Barek (Sinan), Cristina Do Rego (Lisa), Jacobs Matschenz (Dennis), Maximiliam Vollmar (Bomber), Maximilian Mauff (Kevin)
produttore/producer Christian Becker
produzione/production Rat Pack Filmproduktion
coproduzione/coproduction Constantin Film Produktion, Medienfonds GFP I KG
& B.A. Produktion
distribuzione/distibution Bim
vendita all’estero/world sales Celluloid Dreams
soggetto/story da un racconto di/from a short story by William Ron Jones e dall’omonimo sceneggiato di/and upon the teleplay of the same title by Johnny Dawkins, Ron Birnbach
sceneggiatura/screenplay Dennis Gansel, Peter Thorwarth
fotografia/cinematography Torsten Breuer
montaggio/film editing Ueli Christen
scenografia/production design Knut Loewe
costumi/costume design Ivana Milos
suono/sound Patrick Veigel, Heiko Maile
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Jürgen Vogel (Rainer Wenger), Frederick Lau (Tim), Max Riemelt (Marco), Jennifer Ulrich (Karo), Christiane Paul (Anke Wenger), Elyas M’Barek (Sinan), Cristina Do Rego (Lisa), Jacobs Matschenz (Dennis), Maximiliam Vollmar (Bomber), Maximilian Mauff (Kevin)
produttore/producer Christian Becker
produzione/production Rat Pack Filmproduktion
coproduzione/coproduction Constantin Film Produktion, Medienfonds GFP I KG
& B.A. Produktion
distribuzione/distibution Bim
vendita all’estero/world sales Celluloid Dreams
