Oscar-winning German film, The Lives of Others sees a hardline Stasi agent, Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe – Schtonk!, Straight Shooter), become increasingly involved in the life of a successful theatre director under surveillance.
A seemingly too-good-to-be-true supporter of the regime, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch – Never Look Away, Bridge of Spies) falls under suspicion of the authorities. But Wiesler becomes increasingly aware that there are other, more personal reasons as to why Minister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme – Downfall, The Baader-Meinhof Complex) has placed Dreyman on the Stasi priority list.
In his first feature, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (Never Look Away, The Tourist) creates a claustrophobic tension within the confines of the world of 1980s surveillance. With its no-frills, dialogue-driven narrative, a believable scenario unfolds as time ticks away towards the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Winner of the 2007 Oscar for best foreign language film.
Rating: 82%
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