Das Experiment

A role-playing exercise goes terribly wrong in this German film about power, corruption and the beast within. Though based on the novel Black Box, its real inspiration can only be Professor Philip Zimbardo's notorious 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, in which college students assigned to play prisoners and guards in a make-believe penitentiary behaved so badly the project was suspended after six days. Journalist-turned-discontented taxi driver Tarek Fahd (Moritz Bleibtreu) senses a career-rejuvenating story in a newspaper ad. A respectable research facility is seeking subjects for a two-week prison simulation; the pay is generous and the situation will be tigh...