Das Leben der Anderen (2006)

Das Leben der Anderen: Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. With Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Mühe, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur. In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.

“I wonder why there has been so little written and publicized about this movie. This should be seen in every country and its merits trumpeted from the skies.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt starts off slowly and the locale is the former East Germany, inhabited by 16 million people who are being spied upon relentlessly by their secret police. In this very real world of the Berlin Wall, there are many Stasi, 90,000, overseeing the populace, aided and abetted by hundreds of thousands of informants. Many of these snitches were blackmailed or other pressures exerted (threats to children and loved ones) and a few obliged voluntarily.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat is truly amazing is that this is Florian Henckel von Donnersmarcku0026#39;s directorial debut, and he maintains a masterful hand throughout and keeps the story and the tension rolling from the first scene of interrogation which is filmed back and forth between a tape educating new Stasi as to interview techniques and to the actual cell itself where it was recorded.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie circles around three main characters and there is a wider circle of the powerful who pull the puppet strings for a variety of reasons which become clear as the movie unfolds.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFirst is Georg Dreyman, a playwright on the verge of celebrating his 40th birthday. Sebastian Koch, a tall,handsome actor dressed in writerly rumple, shares an apartment with his actress girlfriend, Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), and exists within the strictures of the state-sponsored theatre. He is a decent man, and tries to win support for his blacklisted friends.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor reasons that become quite clear, Dreyman falls under suspicion and the whole sophisticated Stasi spying system comes into play in the era of 1984. His whole apartment is bugged and every sound is monitored.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe man in charge of all this is Captain Gerd Wiesler,(Ulrich Mühe). Ulrichu0026#39;s performance is nothing short of stunning. He starts as an almost robotic presence, dressed in gray, he almost disappears into every scene heu0026#39;s in. But one detects a clear intelligence in his bright eyes, the only part of him thatu0026#39;s alive. Captain Wiesler lives in a non-descript arborited apartment, much like himself. He squeezes his food onto a plate from a tube.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut the captain starts to awaken slowly as he listens surreptitiously on the state of the art equipment secreted in the attic of Dreymanu0026#39;s building. He starts to fall in love with the couple and then pressure from above is brought to bear on him to dig for the dirt in Dreymanu0026#39;s life.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd he is in a dilemma now, as he is drawn further and further into the life of Dreman and his girlfriend.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI wonu0026#39;t throw spoilers down. Suffice to say is that the story is enthralling right down to the very last frame. The acting is superb, the direction impeccable and the world of East Germany meticulously drawn with the viewer respected enough to find his or her own emotional path through the plot.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe ending is truly one of a kind. So right and true that I was left nodding, it was the only one possible.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA must see, I will sing the praises of this film to all I know. 10 out of 10 from me. Right up there in my top 50 of all time. I find it so disappointing that these movies donu0026#39;t get wider release AND compete for an Oscar in the best picture of the year and not just for best foreign film. Now thereu0026#39;s a heretical thought!”