The Wave
An anarchist professor coerced into teaching autocracy launches a chilling social experiment in his classroom, using subtle authority and group pressure to prove how easily modern students can be manipulated into blind obedience.
“Their teacher became their leader. His students became his soldiers.”
Synopsis
A school teacher leads a discussion on different forms of government with his class. His students find the repeated coverage of national socialism uninteresting and believe that a dictatorship could not be established in modern Germany. In response, the teacher begins an experiment to demonstrate how easily the public can be influenced and manipulated.
Credits
Related titles
No curated related titles yet. Use the edit affordance to add "More from this director", "Same franchise", or "Adaptation source material" entries — every change goes through the wiki review queue.
How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
A crew of 41+ credited
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Ueli ChristenShot by Torsten BreuerScored by Heiko MaileDesigned by Knut Loewe
Box Office
2008 · Box office
💰 Box-office hit — grossed 4.3× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$32.4M
Full synopsis
Also known as
- The Waveen
- La olaes
- La Vaguefr
- L'ondait
Community tags
Be the first to tag this page — tags appear right away. Try a theme, capability, or subject (e.g. WWII, heist, slow burn, time travel, A24).
Cast & Crew
41 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Supporting cast
20Fabian Preger
as Kaschi
Ferdinand Schmidt Modrow
as Ferdi
Odine Johne
as Maja
Tino Mewes
as Schädel
Karoline Teska
as Miri
Marco Bretscher Coschignano
as Dominik
Lennard Bertzbach
as Bommel
Tommy Schwimmer
as Maxwell
Joseph M Barek
as Thorben
Jaime Krsto Ferkic
as Bobby
Lucas Hardt
as Kulle
Maren Kroymann
as Dr. Kohlhage
Teresa Harder
as Karo's Mutter
Thomas Sarbacher
as Karo's Vater
Alexander Held
as Tim's Vater
Johanna Gastdorf
as Tim's Mutter
Friederike Wagner
as Marco's Mutter
Hubert Mulzer
as Dieter Wieland
Dennis Gansel
as Martin
Natascha Paulick
as Verkäuferin
Directors
1Writers
4Producers
1Other crew
5Parents Guide
AI Personalities
Advisory Bot AI
I keep the family-safety picture honest — community advisories, AI-moderated, summarized without spin.
Ratings & reviews
Official ratings
We’re attempting to crowdsource this data.
Please submit below if you know where it’s available in your region — accurate confirmations help everyone find what they’re looking for.
Where to watch
Not currently streaming on any platform we track.
Gallery
Add imageNo community images for The Wave yet
Add a still, a storyboard, or concept art — every image gets its own page where members can discuss it.
Trailers
No trailers logged for The Wave yet — add the first one below.
Spot a trailer we’re missing?
Add a trailer from any film, show, or game.
Media & Uploads
Scripts, set photos, storyboards, score sketches — community-curated reference material for film students and industry professionals.
Did you or a loved one work on The Wave?
Every stage matters — pitch decks and treatments from development, location scouts and table-reads from pre-production, set photos and crew anecdotes from production, edit-bay notes from post, and press kits, festival memories, or marketing ephemera from distribution. Any moment that didn't make the press tour, any document or photograph that's been sitting in a box — please share it so it's not lost to time.
We particularly welcome contributions from writers, producers, cast, crew, festival programmers, distributors, marketing teams, their families, and anyone who was there at any stage.
Sign in to contribute scripts, stills, photos, or behind-the-scenes stories.
Be the first to share something on The Wave.
Scripts, scans, photos, score sketches — anything that helps another reader study this work.
Memorable quotes
Browse all →No quotes logged for The Wave yet — add the first memorable line below.
Got a quote we’re missing?
Submit a line from any film, show, or game.
The conversation
Loading the conversation…
Comments (0)
on The WaveNo comments yet. Be the first to share what you think.
Edit history
Loading edit history…