23

Karl Koch is a young man in 1980s Hannover, buried in conspiracy theory and in Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus books, convinced that numbers, above all the number twenty three, keep repeating everywhere. With a friend he starts breaking into government and military systems, and then they sell that access to Soviet intelligence. Hans-Christian Schmid builds the film not around hacking but around a young man losing his grip on reality. Drugs, paranoia and theory feed one another, and the room darkens as the screens get brighter. August Diehl won the German Film Award for the performance. The story is real. Koch was found dead on 23 May 1989 and the death was treated as suicide. How faithful the film is has been disputed, with witnesses to the events objecting, and Schmid later took part in a book setting out the differences. Who it is for: viewers drawn to true stories about computers and paranoia. Who it is not for: anyone wanting technical accuracy and thriller pacing.