Film Number 1 on PinHeadLarry145's 30 Days 30 Countries Film Challenge!

Germany, 2006.

Damn, what a way to start this challenge.

The Lives of Others is a slow burn political thriller/drama that takes place in Germany during the time of the Berlin Wall. A country was divided by harsh political ideals and strictly governed people. Inside the highly restricted East Germany we are introduced to a playwright and his starlet girlfriend. The man and woman are the artistic and intellectual type. They are loyal communists but they begin to question the growing hostility of the government and they start to show that they might not fully agree with the system they are a part of. They question their system yet…

Whilst watching this film I cannot get around the incredible display of film-making skills on display here. Everything is handled with such attention to detail and respect it is simply awe inspiring.
Now it is too easy to attribute this to the Deutsche Gründlichkeit (the German knack for detail and thoroughness), so I won't and I'll say that the strength here stems from respect. Respect for a troubled period in a nation's history.
It is a no-holds barred account of a time where art, freedom and individuality were seen as criminal. And within this all we see the change of one man, a man who listens, spies and judges. The life he has and the life he eventually wants are…

The Lives of Others is a film that is praised in part to it displaying the unspeakable times of East Germany under the iron fist of the Stasi. Through this setting, the film shows how the communistic government created a society that could only conform to their orders. It’s a story of finding yourself amongst a world of clones and the effect love has on people to unshackle their bounds to the nefarious controllers.

Ulrich Mühe plays Wiesler, a Stasi official assigned to observe every detail in a successful playwright’s life (Dreyman). Wiesler is a man that has nothing but his job; his job has made him simply another gear in the system. His face is expressionless and his eyes…

Actors are never "who they are."

First, a totalitarian state that is based on order, fear and suspicion. Then, men with power: a jealous and libidinous minister, a docile and diplomatic Stasi chief and finally a zealous official of unwavering faith. Facing them, an intellectual in love who accepts compromises for his comedian lover.

The ones with knowledge and manipulation, the others who stand as played and watched innocents. From this setup, the film builds up a pyramid which is based on desire, lust then espionage and duplicity. The guilty ones seem obvious, like the expiatory victims. But the process is being progressively held up.
The hero is this skimpy spy (Ulrich Mühe , an overwhelming performance) who becomes aware…

The Lives of Others is a film that is praised in part to it displaying the unspeakable times of East Germany under the iron fist of the Stasi. Through this setting, the film shows how the communistic government created a society that could only conform to their orders. It’s a story of finding yourself amongst a world of clones and the effect love has on people to unshackle their bounds to the nefarious controllers.

Ulrich Mühe plays Wiesler, a Stasi official assigned to observe every detail in a successful playwright’s life (Dreyman). Wiesler is a man that has nothing but his job; his job has made him simply another gear in the system. His face is expressionless and his eyes…