The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others is a riveting film of extraordinary quality. Set in 1984’s Germany, a scary place in time, the film details the many violations of privacy and right to opinion made against the Germans by their own paranoid government. The Stasi bugged countless individuals including many artists and others deemed “suspect” in order to keep a close watch on their activities. Subversive behavior most often led to a complete professional ban and personal exile. The East/West divide was still a defining conflict of the nation and cruel disunion plagued its citizens like an infectious disease.

The principal subject of the film is a Stasi captain named Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler, (Ulrich Mühe) a solitary man who takes an extensive, inappropriate interest in his latest subject: Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch). Dreyman is a poet being monitored under suspicion of seditious acts. As Wiesler listens to Dreyman and his significant other, the famous stage actress Christa-Maria Sieland, (Martina Gedeck) he becomes enthralled in their lives and compassionate to their plight. Mühe imbues the character with all of the cold cruelty you could imagine, but also keeps us aware that he is weary, sad man. The film is quite bleak and dour, but it has such a mastery over its own darkness that you cannot help but be compelled.

Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has a masterful hold on his craft as evidenced by the steady, deliberate pace of this intense but unhurried thriller. He quietly unravels layer upon layer of every character and narrative, exposing more detail with each scene and eventually leaving us with only the raw truth of the matter. The film is more than just a depiction of historically invasive voyeurism. It’s about the truths we all keep hidden behind closed doors and the ways in which people can be misjudged. When we first meet Wiesler, he appears to be the most insatiably ruthless character of the film, but by movie’s end we’ve learned enough about him to see past the façade. This is an auspicious debut from a director who should be kept under close watch in the coming years.

Grade: A-