Das Experiment (English: The Experiment) is a 2001 German film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, about a social experiment, based on Mario Giordano's novel Black Box, which resembles Philip Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment of 1971. When I saw this film in a movie theater I recall the palms of my hands sweating due to the suspenseful nature of it. The film was inspired by the events of the Stanford prison experiment in the US. It is based on the novel Black Box by Mario Giordano.
In a newspaper advertisement, taxi driver Tarek Fahd discovers an invitation to participate in an experiment. 4000 German marks are offered to the participants of the experiment, in which a prison situation is simulated. The experiment is led by Professor Klaus Thon and his assistant, Dr. Jutta Grimm.
Tarek participates as a journalist while wearing a pair of glasses with a built-in mini-camera. Tarek has a car accident shortly before the experiment, after which he meets a woman called Dora. She spends the night with him and Tarek keeps thinking of her, shown in flashbacks. The 20 volunteers are pronounced guards and prisoners and are being observed by a team of scientists. The prisoners lose their civil rights and have to obey certain rules, such as completely eating their meals. The guards are given nightsticks but are told not to use violence in any case. Each prisoner’s name is taken away and replaced by a number. Tarek (prisoner number. 77) initially refuses to acknowledge the guards' superiority, by drinking the milk of his co-prisoners because of his lactose intolerance or by throwing his blanket out of his cell to provoke the guards. He befriends his cellmates, Steinhoff and Schütte. Psychological changes develop and the situation becomes a serious matter. The circumstances seem to be escalating after a few days. It becomes clear that certain limits are not just being reached but even surpassed.
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