Germany Goes Fascist In DIE WELLE (THE WAVE) ** UPDATE **

[Many thanks to ScreenAnarchy reader Stefan - who runs excellent German language film blog Equilibrium - for offering up a translation of the trailer. You'll find that below.]

A website and trailer here for a fascinating film coming out of Germany to play Sundance 2008. The synopsis speaks for itself so I'll let it do just that ...

Germany. The present. As part of a project about various ways of organizing a state, a high school teacher playfully introduces his students to everyday life in a dictatorship. But what begins as an educational game with the terms “discipline” and “community” develops in just a few days into a genuine movement called “Die Welle” (translation: “The Wave”).

The students are initially fascinated by the social mechanisms and fail to notice how much and how quickly they are turning into a fascist society. By the third day they are starting to exclude and persecute those who think differently. The wave gathers momentum and within six days has taken a grip on the whole school.

The teacher, himself fascinated by his role as Fuehrer, is no longer capable of ending the experiment that has now gone completely out of control. When the situation escalates at a water polo match, he finally decides he has to put an end to it. But his attempt fails. The wave has long since developed a life all of its own.

The trailer for this looks absolutely fantastic and lest you think this is specifically a German issue and that such things could never happen here in North America (or wherever you happen to be), um no. The film is based on actual events that took place in a high school in the 1970s. In sunny California.

The official website is very resource intensive - it hung my computer for a while - so I've loaded the trailer into the ScreenAnarchy Player as well. You'll find it below the break along with an English translation of the dialog..

*People crave for something big, for an idea. And if it's there all people will join it. 'It will intoxicate you.' So you are of the opinion that there was no chance for a dictatorship in Germany anymore? No way, we're way too enlightened. 'It will carry you away' Maybe a dictatorship in Germany wouldn't be such a bad thing. If there was somebody leading the way -- no racist like Hitler. 'It will roll over you.' If the Germans aren't allowed to be proud of their country this will lead to the opposite. 'It will break you.' 'Make the right decision.'*

(thanks to Stefan for the translation)