For a school project about the autocratic system, a rebelious teacher in Germany asks his students if such a system could still emerge today. Thinking that they have learned from the two world wars, the students deny. The teacher starts his little project showing how easy it is to make people feel related, how badly people want to belong to a group and how soon that group will think more of themselves than of people outside the group. This is all quite innocent, but still things go out of hand.
“The wave” effectively shows how easy it is influence people’s thinking and behavior. The events are of course over-dramatised, but it could (and should) make people think about youth-cultures and politics alike. Just clothing and a logo is enough to look down at outsiders, there does not even need to be an ideology involved. Individuality may not even be such a bad development!
The film is well-done, the story kept simple, the message is clear and the youths act well. Not bad at all.
