The Lives of Others

Is there anything more dangerous than a true believer who approaches his mission with unshakable certainty and unwavering dogma? Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's drama, which won the 2006 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, follows the odyssey of a staunchly patriotic agent (a brilliant Ulrich Mühe) of the Stasi, the secret police of the GDR (Communist East Germany), and his surveillance of a beloved socialist playwright (Sebastian Koch) with a spotless record. Mühe's single-minded agent sees conspiracy and guilt everywhere and is relentless in his pursuit and interrogation of the "enemies of socialism," but his ideology and faith is shaken after seeing the world through the eyes of his target and watching the arrogant abuse of power wielded by his superiors. Von Donnersmarck sets the story in 1984, a year with both symbolic resonance (the culture of government intimidation and social coercion is a real-life echo of George Orwell's dystopian fiction) and historical significance (it was the darkest moment of East Germany's political repression before the dawn of the fall of the Berlin wall). And "The Lives of Others" is dark, but burning beneath the scathing political exposé of the GDR's despotic paranoia and the personal tragedy of the drama is a bracing story of idealism, disillusionment, and defiance. Martina Gedeck co-stars as an actress destroyed by the machinations of corrupt government officials.

German writer/director von Donnersmarck speaks fluent English (better than some of his American counterparts) and provides an articulate commentary track that celebrates his unabashed appreciation of actors ("I think acting is the greatest art of all because it's such a direct art," he gushes. "You just have yourself, your body and your soul, and that's all you can use. It's the most direct and complete art form.") and explains the social and historical details that American audiences are unlikely to notice or understand. He also discusses the film in a more focused 25-minute interview (essential if only for the devastating real life story of Mühe), also in English, and in the German-language featurette "Making of The Lives of Others," along with the actors and other members of the production. Also features seven deleted/extended scenes with optional commentary (in English).