Rafaela Schautzer (tangerina)

Undoubtedly one of the most intelligent, insightful and disturbing films ever made, Die Welle configures itself to me as a aesthetic, ideological, pedagogical and sociological masterpiece.

Based on the infamous experiment originally occurred in California in 1967, called The Third Wave and proposed by Ron Jones, a History teacher that should approach the doctrine of fascism in class. Jones opted for the experiment when he realized that his students didn't understand the ignorance of the German people declared against the extermination of Jews during the Nazi regime. The teacher decided to simulate in a kind of society's microcosm, composed by him and his students, the end of democracy to raise the power of unity, while following the motto "strength through discipline, strength through community, strength through action, strength through pride ".

The film is perfectly suited to the contemporary reality of German youth, who bear the brunt of one of the most violent dictatorships in history. The teacher Rainer Wenger (Jürgen Vogel) tries to answer whether it is possible, nowadays, an emerging autocratic regime in Germany. In one of the early scenes, the young Germans accuse each other (West / East Germany) and Turks boast to be not part of that people, just a glimpse of the human sleeping terror.

In Rainer's class, a teacher who already was admired by his students, the movement begins through the power by discipline, causing the gang follow a few rules, so cleverly subtly and seductive imposed to become obedient. Heralded as the leader, Rainer feeds the movement with indications that are more pleasing to the students: defining a name for the group (Die Welle, translated as The Wave), a symbol, a greeting and a uniform. Through every little imposition, the teacher sees his intentions working, but not the consequences, as the experience out of the classroom and becomes ideology of the influenced youngs. Die Welle then becomes a collective movement, eliminating the individuality and free will of the members for the benefit to the alleged order and unity. The demonstration quickly dissipates by the school and more students decide to join the group that discriminates against anyone who isn't part of it.

To the amazement of Wenger, his students react favorably to the discipline imposed. The arguments used to join the group - the benefits of equality, justice and order - are the same that have historically been used by political systems either from right or left. The director Dennis Gansel is keen to show, in a synthetic but effective form, the home environments of some of the students, thus contextualizing its subsequent reactions. Shy students and victims of bullying begin to finally feel part of a group, old rivalries were attenuated, and virtually all are left to rest in the comfort of totalitarianism who doesn't oblige them to think for themselves. Now, the differences are canceled and the identities suppressed in the name of a common idea.

The narrative, with a daily progress, tracks the fervent and devoted gang involvement in the project: the creation of a uniform, a name, a logo, a page on myspace. This fervor eventually spread to other students outside of class, while it repels all who opine differently.

Although the movie is a metaphor for how the Nazis raised and the power of its rituals, can educate students about the power of doctrinal political or religious ideological movements. And, indeed, "The Wave" is a metaphor that applies, more or less, to any mass movement responding to calls for a charismatic leader or a mythical cause irrational. The use of slogans and worship of a supposed "great leader" are repeated in the history of mankind: it happened in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and also the so-called 'real socialism' of the Soviet Union, especially in the Stalinist period, in China with the "cultural revolution" promoted by Mao, in Argentina with Peron. The criminal acts of the Ku Klux Klan, McCarthyism that triggered the "witch hunt" to pursue all alleged "communists" in the U.S., rightest governments in Latin America with totalitarian traits as that of Pinochet (Chile), the apartheid regime of South Africa (before Nelson Mandela), the process of "ethnic cleansing" conducted by the Serbs in the Balkans, the neo-Nazi groups skinheads around the world, the balds from the ABC Paulista, Berlusconi, Bush, Jean Marie Le Pen and Ahmadinejad himself, just to name a few.

We note that the common thread among these leaders is the ability to fanaticized the masses for a cause a rational or irrational, taking advantage of undemocratic methods, a fact well elucidated by professor Rainer in his final speech.

In sum, through his characters, "The Wave" can focuses on three lines of analysis: Nazi-fascism as a totalitarian political ideology of the right, the mass psychology and voluntary servitude of individuals to a leader, group or mythical cause, the ideological and political propaganda and the use of 'pedagogical experience' as a means of going beyond the mere learning of theoretical concepts. Note that the teacher takes the film to experiment with group as a teaching resource 'experiential' which always implies some risk of losing control of the educational experience.

It remains actual the closing speech of Professor Wenger, delivered at the end of "The Wave" denouncing to the students the disappearance of critical subjects before the power of a charismatic leader and fanaticism for a cause:

"You thought you were so special! Better than everyone outside of this room. You traded your freedom for what you said was equality. But you turned your equality into superiority over non-Wave members. You accepted the group's will over your own convictions, no matter who you had to hurt to do it. Oh, some of you thought you were just going along for the ride, that you could walk away at any moment. But did you? Did any of you try it? Yes, you all would have made good Nazis. You would have put on the uniform, turned your heads, and allowed your friends and neighbors to be persecuted and destroyed. You say it could never happen again, but look how close you came. Threatening those who wouldn't join you, preventing non-Wave members from sitting with you at football games. Fascism isn't something those other people did, it is right here, in all of us. You ask how could the German people do nothing as millions of innocent human beings were murdered? How could they claim they weren't involved? What causes people to deny their own histories?"

"If history repeats itself, you will all want to deny what happened to you in The Wave. But, if our experiment has been successful - and I think you can see that it has - you will have learned that we are all responsible for our own actions, and that you must always question what you do rather than blindly follow a leader, and that for the rest of your lives, you will never, ever allow a group's will to usurp your individual rights."

Except for all the social criticism that the film brings, I can't forget to mention the exceptional cast (Professor Rainer, played by Jürgen Vogel and the young Tim, Frederick Lau, who lives through the movement, are incredibly bright).

We live in a world where the words of politicians and advertising imagery can persuade people to give up their rights and freedoms to feed a sick policing and surveillance in the name of a false need for security. The economic interests of this "industry" makes it impossible to turn back even when the danger subsides. To the best of reasons, totalitarianism can be tempting. This is the terror against which we must fight, a terror that lives with us and often within ourselves.

The expression on the face of the teacher at the end is awesome. Ron Jones, professor of the real experiment, analyzes this scene as designed to make the to make the audience consider their own capacity for evil. "It puts it into a universal context. We're all capable of this nightmare."

The film lost within itself. The characters didn't achieve me (and I'm "easily achievable"). Tried to explain in words a place where the viewer could get by himself. The feeling is that a story who could be told in ten minutes was forcibly stretched.