23

23 (1998) is a German crime thriller based on a true story from the late 1980s — watch it online on iFILM. Director Hans-Christian Schmid reconstructed the case of Karl Koch, a young man from Hannover who went from conspiracy theory bulletin boards to breaching NATO and NASA systems, with the KGB waiting at the other end.

August Diehl plays Karl, an orphan who uses his inheritance to buy a flat and a computer. His obsession with Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! bleeds into his hacking — he sees the number 23 encoded everywhere, a signal that something bigger is unfolding. His friend David is along for the ride; their criminal acquaintance Pepe sees a business opportunity and heads to East Berlin to sell their data.

The real Karl Koch was found burned to death in a forest in 1989, officially ruled a suicide. The case was never fully explained. Schmid shoots the film with the flat unease of surveillance footage, and Diehl carries every frame. Stream 23 online on iFILM.