Moritz Bleibtreu: Tarek Fahd	Christian Berkel: Steinhoff
Edgar Selge: Dr. Klaus Thon	Andrea Sawatzki: Dr. Jutta Grimm
Justus Von Dohnanyi: Berus	Maren Eggert: Dora
Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel	Based on novel by Marc Conrad

30 Second Bottom Line: A group of men volunteer to play guards and prisoners for two weeks as part of a research project.

Tell Me More About It: Based on the novel "The Black Box," which gleaned its story line from the infamous 1970 Stanford Experiment, "Das Experiment" delivers a painful diatribe on man's inhumanity to man and the violent, animalistic nature of his soul. This is one of those gut-wrenching films that are difficult to watch but nearly impossible to walk away from.

Initially, the deal seems too good to be true. Twenty men give up two weeks of freedom and earn a whopping four thousand marks. Incarcerated in a prison and assigned a role as either an inmate or a guard, the job appears relatively harmless. Maintain control without violence, the guards are instructed by the researchers. Prisoners joke with the guards, one even entertains the group with his Elvis impersonation.

brings to mind "The Lord of the Flies" and "Fight Club." Moritz Bleibtreu (Manni from "Run Lola Run") plays Tarek, a cabby and sometime journalist, and sees this whole experiment as a fabulous feature story and convinces his editor to okay his undercover investigation as a prisoner. Outfitted with James Bond-like eyeglasses that double as a hidden camera, Tarek provokes the guards into more aggressive behavior.

Gradually the light-heartedness of the project fades away and then demarcation between jailer and inmate becomes sadistically clear. Prisoners are forced to strip and are hosed down in an effort to maintain control without violence. Humiliation is the order of the day.

In small increments, guard Berus is transformed into a power-hungry, Nazi spin-off and the bloodbath begins. Indeed, this is probably precisely what the scientists had hoped to achieve. And it is a small satisfaction when these careless researchers receive a comeuppance for their foolhardiness.

"Das Experiment" offers a depressing insight into human nature, asserting that, when backed in a corner, man will revert to animalistic behavior. One cannot help but speculate that had the prisoners and guards been female that the outcome of this film would have been vastly different. "Das Experiment" takes testosterone machismo to its extreme.

Winner of several Bavarian Film Awards, including best screenplay, director and cinematography, "Das Experiment" is a riveting commentary not without flaws. Viewers should brush aside weak plot lines (the ridiculous appearance of a screwdriver, the illogic of both researchers abandoning the facility at a crucial time in the experiment, and Tarek's obvious preoccupation with his "glasses") and flimsy character development (Dora who?). This is a film whose laurels rest primarily on its heavy-duty philosophic theme. A meaty one to chew on long after the final reel.