Review of 23

23 (1998)
7/10
Interesting mix of German late sixties' politics, conspiracy theories and electronic pirating.
17 August 2005
The premise of this film is that late teen hacker Karl Koch, rebelling against his conservative(step)father and concerned with the complex conspiracy theories laid out in the novel "Illuminati", gets drawn in by two dodgy dealers that convince him that, as all info should be available to everybody, it would be absolutely consequential to conduct computer-espionage for the Sowiet Union. Accompanied by his friend David, this enterprise develops into a drugged and paranoid trip. In my opinion, the film renders quite a nice picture of what must have been the atmosphere during this period in German history, at the same time allowing a look back at early hacking. Conspiracy theory, though, is given the heaviest stress, in combination with the two youths getting carried away by the sheer excitement of their 'revolutionary' activities - and noses full of coke. Admittedly, it seems hardly believable this would be based on a true story. One of the reviews featured here, though, accused the actors of being to 'theatrical'. Although they might not perform on an academy-award-winning level, I rather thought everybody was acting pretty fairly.
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