23 - Nichts ist so wie es scheint

Acting on the highest levels. Best german movie have ever seen.

Conspiracy theorist alert! All conspiracy theorists need to see this movie. I wont mislead you all, it's not a conspiracy movie. It's a German cinematic variation of "The Falcon and the Snowman", based on actual events that took place in West Germany during the mid 80's.

It involves a young and rebellious radical, who happens to have a healthy appetite for conspiracy theories. Him and his good mate then turn to computer hacking as a means of fighting the war against nuclear power through out Europe.

As they get more involved people start offering them money to hack organisations for information (Including the KGB).... This is when things start becoming a bit awry!

Very thought provoking stuff, highly recommended!!!

In Fact, there are quiet many German movies which have brought the evidence to establish themselves as classics. In general these movies are dramas or comedies and very often they provide the viewer with historical informations of a certain time and area. However, what is often missing is suspense. Allhough German television is full of good crime stories and thrillers this Genre is hardly found in German cinema.

At least this is one reason why I like this movie so much. 23 allows to enter the mind of a burnt out, intelligent but unloved son, who tried to break out of his boring life by rebelling against his dominant father and the establishment of the mid 80th. Where as his protest uses to be more like coming out of a group behavior which is based on ideals his intention during the movie changes completely and ends up in a computer spy environment heavily connected with a continuous downward development of his mental and physical condition.

In one sentence: This movie is one of those that shouldn't end because you want to know more about everything,the whole thing, so deep you will place yourself into the plot and you don't want to leave it. 23 changed my life. Afterwards, I had another opinion about reality.

Check it out yourself, I extremely recommend this movies

Films dealing with real events in the past and focusing on a non-general subject should find a specific form or approach - for the sake of wider understanding and praise. In 23, the story begins auspiciously, but then the pace abates, and many scenes and characters have little meaning for the story development - or they have a role, but the viewers obtain no satisfactory clarification. The activities of law enforcement are almost not depicted at all. True, the leading performances are realistic and good (particularly August Diehl as Karl Koch), and the moods and style of the 80ies have been caught, but the run of events and the ending did not meet my expectations in full.

Well, this story has its interesting angles at present as most of people in the 1980ies had no PC or intranet, but it is not on the level of e.g. Who Am I – Kein System ist sicher, dealing with hackers as well.

I think this is a great movie. It's focus is on the *person* Karl Koch, how he became the character he was in the end, and definitely not another "Hacker"-like movie or a story about the so-called "KGB-Hack" and how his group was finally busted. What makes this movie different from e.g. X-Files is that it is realistic; everyone can easily reconstruct how Karl Koch came to believe in the conspiracy-theories based on the "Illuminatus"-books - A believe that was increasingly strengthened by his ever increasing cocaine addiction. This is also a movie about friendship, false friends, and how friendship and trust are sacrificed to money and addiction.