On paper, Die Welle seems like the kind of film you would expect Michael Haneke to make; an allegorical story with an important socio-political message that can feel like a lecture in the way it is told. As anyone who has watched - nay, endured - Funny Games will know, his work can often feel punitive, as if the viewer is being reprimanded for doing something wrong. Now, I happen to think that despite being incredibly unlikeable, Funny Games is a masterpiece. But what Dennis Gansel has done with Die Welle is far more accessible and entertaining, although not necessarily better.
Rainer Wenger (Jürgen Vogel), a teacher in a German high school, is assigned to teach the autocracy class, much…