Die Welle
I know I’ve been very bad. I haven’t written in weeks, even though I’ve done a lot of exciting things in this time. I had guests in Berlin twice since I came back from Prague, so I did a lot of the things I don’t normally do in Berlin now that I’ve been here several times. This is probably the last time I write from Berlin – I leave Friday morning.
Die Welle (“The Wave”) is therefore probably the last film I got to see at the Freiluftkino Kreuzberg, my favorite open-air movie theatre. It is a new German film by director Dennis Gansel, though it is based on the same (true, more or less) story as an American TV movie also called “The Wave“, from 1981. The event has been moved to Germany from California, however.
The event: a highschool history teacher is puzzled by his students’ claim that it would be impossible for a fascist regime to come to power today in Germany. He comes (on the spot!) with a roleplaying game in which he tries to prove to his students how seductive fascist ideology can be. The experiment turns into “The Wave”, and the teacher finds himself unable to stop the monster he gave birth to.
The film is quite good despite the many points were disbelief must be entirely suspended. For some reason, for example, either the writer or the director decided that the events have to happen within a week, presumably to heighten the sense of momentum with which the “wave” builds. Also, it seems unlikely that a German teenager would be likely to secure a gun as easily as one of the characters does – this might have made more sense in the American original.
It is certainly a thought-provoking film, particularly for teachers. Roleplaying games and other such assignments are quite popular, with such activities as “Re-Acting to the Past” and Model UN becoming part of many curricula. I teach public speaking, so it’s obviously a very relevant pedagogical tool for me. Of course it’s dangerous to take a work of art as “evidence”, and I would be interested in learning more about what happened in the actual California class room. But I think anybody who watches the film will consider rethinking how roleplaying activities should be framed, debriefed, discussed. Also, what the role of the teacher should be: It seemed to be like one mistake that the fictional teacher made was to play the role of the “Fuehrer” himself. His real authority in the classroom was identified with his fictional authority as charismatic political leader, compromising his situation.
It seemed more like an exercise in method acting than a history classroom exercise actually. The students extended the “rules” of the game to the real world, so much that one of them (violently) refused to let the teacher end the “game”. It reminds me of stories I heard/read about how Jerome Robbins rehearsed West Side Story, by dividing the cast into rival gangs and forbidding any contact between them. Insane!
The film is definetely worth seeing. Juergen Vogel as the teacher is quite good, seeming both fascinating and terrified by the power he has over his students. The rest of the cast naturally is very young but they do quite well, they can be quite intimidating at times – see the photo above!
