Mathieu Carrière, Marian Seidowsky, Bernd Tischer and Fred Dietz
Cannes Film Festival 1966: Winner FIPRESCI Prize
German Film Awards 1966: Winner Film Award in Gold - Outstanding Feature Film, Best New Direction, Best Screenplay
IFF San Francisco 1966: Golden Gate Trophy
IFF Nantes 1966: Prix Max Ophüls
German Film Prize 1966: Filmband in Gold, Best Screenplay, Filmband in Gold, Best Direction
At a boarding school in 1900s Austria, cruel bullies Beineberg and Reiting go to great lengths to embarrass, abuse and dehumanize their pathetic classmate, Basini. The lowly Basini shows no opposition to his position as the object of constant brutality, and neither does Töerless, a perceptive yet detached friend of the bullies. But as Töerless watches idly, the tormentors begin to turn the whole school violently against Basini.
In the presence of director Volker Schlöndorff