Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others)
2006
****½
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Cast: Ulrich Mühe, Sebastian Koch, Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Tukur, Thomas Thieme
It's 1984 in East Berlin where Stasi places two suspected enemies of the state, a playwright and an actress, under surveillance. A dedicated but lonely Stasi agent immerses himself in their lives and slowly begins to question his orders. This wonderful and utterly believable (apart from some updated hairdos and costumes) German drama captures the paranoia and hypocrisy of the GDR regime, and manages to tell a very moving personal story about the era. Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film.
