20 volunteers agree to take part in a seemingly well-paid experiment advertised by the university. It is supposed to be about aggressive behavior in an artificial prison situation. A journalist senses a story behind the ad and smuggles himself in among the test subjects. They are randomly divided into prisoners and guards. What seems like a game at the beginning soon turns into bloody seriousness.
Acting
Bleibtreu's descent from smug journalist to broken Prisoner 77 is devastating.
Direction
Hirschbiegel traps you in claustrophobic corridors, no escape, no relief.
Writing
Based on the actual Stanford Prison Experiment — and somehow MORE brutal.
Director
Oliver Hirschbiegel
Moritz Bleibtreu
Tarek Fahd, Prisoner Nr. 77
Christian Berkel
Robert Steinhoff, Prisoner Nr. 38
Justus von Dohnányi
Berus
Maren Eggert
Dora
Edgar Selge
Professor Dr. Klaus Thon
Andrea Sawatzki
Dr. Jutta Grimm
Oliver Stokowski
Günther Schütte, Prisoner Nr. 82
Wotan Wilke Möhring
Joe Maier, Prisoner Nr. 69
Nicki von Tempelhoff
Kamps
Timo Dierkes
Eckert
Antoine Monot Jr.
Bosch
Lars Gärtner
Renzel
Philipp Hochmair
Lars
Peter Fieseler
Prisoner Nr. 11
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Mario Giordano's novel 'Black Box,' itself inspired by the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment — which was shut down in six days. This fictional version doesn't stop.
Released the same year as the Abu Ghraib scandal became public, making its torture imagery accidentally prophetic and deeply uncomfortable.
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