23 - Nothing is what it seems

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Movie
Original title 23 - Nothing is what it seems
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1998
length 99 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Hans-Christian Schmid
script Michael Gutmann
Hans-Christian Schmid
production Jakob Claussen
Thomas Wöbke
music Enjott Schneider
camera Klaus Eichhammer
cut Hansjörg Weißbrich
occupation

23 - Nothing is as it seems is a film by Hans-Christian Schmid from 1998 . It was produced by Claussen + Wöbke and is based on the real events of the so-called KGB hack .

This case, in which young in the 1980s, a group of West German computer hacker espionage activities for the Soviet secret service KGB was arrested was often the subject in German literature. With the film 23 - Nothing is as it seems , however, the figure of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), Karl Koch from Hanover, was in the foreground for the first time.

The title of the film alludes to the main character's obsession with the number 23 .

action

In the Federal Republic of the 1980s - at the time of the peace movement , the anti-nuclear power demonstrations (including in front of the Brokdorf nuclear power plant ) and the end of the Cold War - the 19-year-old Karl Koch perceived the world around him as false and threatening. Inspired by the fictional character Hagbard Celine from Robert Sheas and Robert Anton Wilsons Illuminatus! Trilogy, he sets out from Hanover in search of the background to political and economic power and discovers signs (such as the number 23 ) that make him believe in a worldwide conspiracy . Karl's father, a conservative Hanoverian newspaper editor, dies of a brain tumor. Karl rents an apartment from the inherited 50,000 marks and invites his acquaintances to parties.

At a meeting of the Chaos Computer Club, Karl meets the student David. Robert Anton Wilson, the author of Illuminatus! , is giving a lecture at this conference. David and Karl manage to outsmart the global data network (here Datex-P ) that was just emerging at the time with a Commodore PC and an acoustic coupler. Out of lack of money and idealism, they become spies for the KGB. The increasing pressure to do good hacks in foreign systems drives Karl more and more into cocaine addiction and increasingly alienates him from David. Karl, who often sits in front of the computer for days without sleep and in a cocaine intoxication, suffers from increasingly strong delusions ; the lines between dream and reality become blurred. When his trust in David breaks, Karl is on his own.

The NDR journalist Jochen Maiwald wants to write a story about hackers and convinces Karl and David to do a hack into the German nuclear power plant in Jülich in front of the camera . However , this action made the BKA aware of the sender and Karl. The collapse soon followed. After the Chernobyl disaster , Karl was admitted to a hospital and, after withdrawal, placed in a home, where he was threatened by KGB contacts Pepe and Lupo.

After a house search at the Hamburg radio station, Karl testifies to the protection of the constitution about his and David's activities and is included in a witness protection program, later he works as a driver under a new name. Pepe and Lupo are arrested.

Inscriptions conclude the film with brief information about the further path of the main characters: Koch died in 1989 under unexplained circumstances. Lupo and Pepe receive suspended sentences. David remains unpunished and sells his story to the "Stern".

criticism

“With '23', Hans-Christian Schmid designed one of the best German films that have been made in recent years. From the key data of the subject rather less inviting, the material develops an amazing content-related and formal complexity. "

- Claus Löser : film-dienst (No. 1/1999)

“A thematically and formally extraordinarily complex, in Godardian sense also political film, which at the same time deals with impoverishment in the interpersonal area. Based on an actual occurrence, a work was created in which unexpected potencies are formulated beyond a national cinematography that otherwise dissolves into trivialities. "

- Lexicon of international film

Soundtrack and version differences

The songs from the 1980s listed below were used for the theatrical version and added to the mood of the film. For many of them there was no international license, which is why other songs were used in the second, international DVD version.

  1. Deep Purple - Child in Time
  2. Killing Joke - Eighties
  3. Iggy Pop - The Passenger
  4. Clay Shards of Stones - Smoke House Song
  5. 39 Clocks - DNS
  6. The Flying Lizards - Money
  7. Dave Pike - Mathar
  8. Roxy Music - Love Is the Drug
  9. Circle of Friends - Hold on to your love - Motif 23
  10. Enjott Schneider - Time Flies
  11. Enjott Schneider - Illuminatus
  12. Enjott Schneider - At Winterfeldtplatz
  13. Enjott Schneider - Persecuted by the BKA
  14. Enjott Schneider - Friendship
  15. Enjott Schneider - Farewell
  16. Enjott Schneider - The Last Ride

Awards

  • 1998: Don Quixote Prize (Honorable Mention) and Youth Jury Prize at the Locarno International Film Festival
  • 1998: Screenplay Award at the Gijón International Film Festival for Hans-Christian Schmid
  • 1999: 2nd place at the New Faces Award for August Diehl (best young actor)
  • 1999: German Film Prize in Gold for August Diehl (Best Actor), Film Prize in Silver (Best Feature Film)
  • 1999: Bavarian Film Prize for August Diehl (Best Young Actor)
  • The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.

literature

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ 23 - Nothing is what it seems. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 4, 2015 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used