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The Lives of Others

Written by Nobuhiro Hosoki

 

Round table interview with director Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck

Set in 1984, five years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, this film reveals the treacherous and thoroughly paranoid surface of the former East Germany, a smothered society where Communist control runs rampant. The all-powerful Stasi (Secret police) are at the height of their influence, extending into a vast network of 100,000 employees with 20,000 informants in a nation with a population of 17 million.

As the film begins, a cunning and committed Stasi officer named Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) is teaching the finer points of interrogation to a young staffer in a training facility, showing him the extreme measures that are necessary to uncover the conspiracy of wrongdoing. One day, he is assigned to interrogate Georg Dryman (Sebastian Koch), the author of a successful play. Dryman has a natural grace in his charmed life. Though he is seemingly supportive of East German Socialism, he still gets Stasi surveillance, on account of the conniving culture minister Bruno Hempf(Thomas Thieme), who has the hots for George's live-in actress lover(Martina Gedeck).

Hempf's agenda is sole possession of her, by ousting Dryman. After an icy cold Wiesler sets up a bug, he sits, emotionally distant, in their attic observing day by day and monitoring ever banal conversation, patiently waiting for him to do anything that could be a crime agaist the state. Then he slowly entwines himself into the playwright's existence, discovering the perverse intimacy of their lives, even to the extent of falsifying his reports to headquarters. The film becomes even more gripping as he progresses, peeling away the layers of human drama until the heart-wrenching and hauntingly resonating final scene.

Actor Ulrich marvelously portrays a colorless man, contributing a substantial, self-contained performance that pierces through the rawness, totally going beyond what is expected of a regular shadowy villain. An astounding debut by director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck who gives us a wake-up call by drawing from hard-nosed observation and childhood memories. He exploits the weakness and confusion of his fellow citizens, showing the suffocating fear of the unpredictable  totalitarian universe. Throughout, the film captures every bit of unflinching tension. In the end, It's scary to think that neighbors betray neighbors in the name of state security, and how politics can potentially invade certain aspects of human life. This is one of the best new films, one that definitely deserves an Oscar nomination.

Director-screenwriter: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Producer: Quirin Berg, Max Wiedemann
Director of photography: Hagen Bogdanski
Production designer: Silke Buhr
Music: Gabriel Yared, Stephane Moucha
Costume designer: Gabriele Binder
Editor: Patricia Rommel
Running time -- 137 minutes
Released by Buena Vista International

Cast: Ulrich Muehe(Capt. Gerd Wiesler)
Sebastian Koch(Georg Dreyman)
Ulrich Tukur(Anton Grubitz)
Martina Gedeck(Christa-Maria Sieland)
Thomas Thieme(Minister Bruno Hempf)
Hans-Uwe Bauer(Paul Hauser)
Volkmar Kleinert(Albert Jerska)
Herbert Knaup(Gregor Hessenstein)