SIFF Pick of the Day: The Wave

The Wave
What will it take to unite today’s youth and get them politically involved? That question lies at the center of this terrific, disturbing German drama about a high-school social experiment gone wrong. During a weeklong study of authoritarianism, an unorthodox teacher encourages his complacent students to start their own society to experience life under a dictatorship. Things soon (surprise, surprise) take a turn for the worse, with teens dressing in uniform, attacking outsiders, and giving suspicious hand salutes. The script is based on real-life events in California, and the movie gains immediate weight by moving things to Germany, where the troubling implications are increased exponentially. The young performers give believable performances that are painful to watch as their initial idealism about a life free from social hierarchy slowly disintegrates. Jürgen Vogel is even more heartbreaking as their instructor, a man seeking any method to reach his students. His is a bitter lesson indeed. (NR) FRANK PAIVA Pacific Place: 6:30 p.m. (Also: 1:30 p.m. Sat., June 7.)