A wonderfully moving film (The Lives Of Others (DVD))

Member Name: paulie1975

Product:	The Lives Of Others (DVD)
Date:	04/01/09 (4 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic acting, the main character is exceptional, the build up of paranoia is tense

Disadvantages: None a great film

The Lives of Others is a touching and yet incredibly scary look at East Germany before the fall of communism.

In East Berlin in 1984, the Stasi (East German Secret Police), are gaining more and more control, spying on German citizens, asking families and friends to spy on each other for the 'cause', and recruiting thousands of them to spy on each other.
Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) has been ordered to monitor playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) who the authorities believe may be a spy or disruptive influence, so Wiesler unknown to his target creates a surveillance room and listens closely as Dreyman, his actress girlfriendand various suspected radical friends gather in their apartment.
The film takes a turn when Wiesler discovers that the culture minister cast suspicion on Dreyman only so he can get to know Dreyman's beautiful girlfriend.
Wiesler is then left to question everything he understands to be right in the society he lives, why is he spying on somebody who is essentially a good person, what is the sense of paranoia and hate stemming from.
This is a wonderfully thoughtful film and damned scary one too, as it is based on real events and the sense of fear of being in East Germany in this era is incredibly tense.
The actors are wonderful with Wiesler putting in a moving performance as a man who realises everything he believes in may be wrong.
One of the great German films. (Subtitled)

Summary: A wonderfully tense and moving drama