The Experiment

A university advertises a two-week study on aggressive behaviour, paying volunteers to spend the time in a simulated prison. Twenty men sign up and are split into two groups: twelve prisoners, who must follow the rules, and eight guards, who must keep order. A taxi driver named Tarek is among them, and a journalist talks his way in as well, sensing there is more to the story than a paid psychology test. At first the men treat the whole thing as a game, but the power they have been handed changes how the guards behave toward the prisoners, and the experiment drifts beyond what its organisers can control.

Oliver Hirschbiegel directed the film, released in 2001, from a screenplay by Don Bohlinger, Christoph Darnstädt and Mario Giordano, whose novel "The Black Box" drew on the Stanford prison experiment. Moritz Bleibtreu plays Tarek, with Christian Berkel, Justus von Dohnányi, Maren Eggert, Edgar Selge and Andrea Sawatzki in the main roles. It was Hirschbiegel's second feature, following Trickser, and came several years before Downfall.

The film performed modestly at the box office, taking around 14 million dollars worldwide, but it has held up well with viewers, scoring 7.7 on IMDb from roughly 99,000 votes and 7.4 on TMDB. Critics were somewhat cooler, giving it 6.8 from 65 reviews, so audiences have rated it more highly than reviewers did.