When the orphaned Karl Koch and his friend David start breaking into government and military computers, an acquaintance senses that there is money in computer cracking - and travels to east Berlin to try to contact the KGB.
Where to Watch 23
- mgrunnerSeptember 21, 202623 masterfully captures the spirit of West Germany in the mid-1980s, documenting the raw dawn of the personal computer revolution with remarkable authenticity. Recounting the true story of hacker Karl Koch, the film resists the urge to become a dry docudrama; instead, it delivers a gripping, atmospheric psychological thriller. August Diehl is portraying Koch not as an action hero, but as an idealistic, vulnerable youth gradually consumed by drug-induced paranoia, conspiracy literature, and cold-war dread. Beyond the hacking lore and acoustic couplers, the film delivers a biting geopolitical critique. It dismantles West Germany's self-important posturing of the era. The republic fancied itself a central stage of high-stakes espionage, assassinations, and statecraft, while in truth it was little more than a provincial playground and pawn in the proxy chess match of the Cold War superpowers. Caught in the crosshairs of this cynical machinery was a restless teenager chasing digital freedom, hunted by real and imagined ghosts, and ultimately crushed by a world far bigger and colder than his screen.
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23 was released on July 2, 1998.
23 was directed by Hans-Christian Schmid.
23 has a runtime of 1h 39m.
23 was produced by Jakob Claussen, Thomas Wöbke.
When the orphaned Karl Koch and his friend David start breaking into government and military computers, an acquaintance senses that there is money in computer cracking - and travels to east Berlin to try to contact the KGB.
The key characters in 23 are Karl Koch (August Diehl), David (Fabian Busch), Pepe (Dieter Landuris).
23 is rated PG-13.
23 is a Drama, Thriller film.
23 has an audience rating of 7.8 out of 10.