The Experiment (2001)
also "Das Experiment"

Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel

This was a very intriguing movie, set apart from many foreign films by its strong action sequences, well-executed suspense, and well done visual effects. It also had several intriguing social and cultural ideas that took it well beyond the level of most recent American Cinema.

At it's core, The Experiment is a takeoff on the Stanford Prison Experiment, wherein twenty volunteers are split into two groups, one is given uniforms, and equipment and told that they are now guards in a prison. The other group becomes prisoners. Over a period of time, the two groups begin to truly assume their roles, and the situation quickly degenerates into a true prison dynamic. The researchers in the movie take this one step further, identifying two "Dynamic" personalities with pre-experiment screenings, and place them on opposite sides of the bars. The two personalities play off of eachother, increasing tension, and bringing the prison to a boil.

To complicate matters, Prisoner 77 (Moritz Bleibtrau) is a freelance journalist. He's trying to push the situation to it's extreme in order to make his story that much more interesting. This ends up being more than he bargained for however, and in the end, he's more than happy to be out of the fake prison.

The acting is quite good, and you may recognize Moritz Bleibtrau, who played Manny in "Run Lola Run". I'm not intimately familiar with German cinema, but I believe most of the rest are fairly b-list cinema and T.V. actors.

All in all, I'm definitely going to have to pick up a copy of this one. I give it 4 1/2 stars out of five.