One of the best movies in recent years... And more than simply a drama about the Stasi secret service...

Rating: 10/10 (16 August 2007)

In April 2006, a friend of mine asked me if i'd join her to watch "Das Leben Der Anderen" at the movies. I didn't quite know what this movie was really about, i only knew it dealt with the Stasi secret service in the former GDR, an historical topic which is still discussed controversial and emotionally in present-day Germany.
After the end titles appeared on the screen i realized that i had not only seen that year's best movie, but also IMO one of the best movies in recent years! I watched 4 more times (convincing other friends of mine to join me at the movies) and now it's of my favourite moves ever...
I was struck by the atmosphere, the brilliant acting (especially the great (and sadly late) Ulrich Muehe) and the compelling storytelling and directing of Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck (what a name! But one i'll keep on my radar...) and its' message...
I felt that this movie was more than simply a "Stasi movie" as it is often described. Even more it's a moral play about being human (under inhuman conditions). It shows how a totalitarian system dehumanizes its people - no matter if they are pro or contra the regime. But it also reminds me about how people even in the so-called "free world" in the western hemisphere act like opportunists, neglect their freedom of speech and simply follow paroles...
Maybe that's the main reason this movie is understood around the world and not only in Germany. It uses the historical situation of the last years of the GDR to explore how humans behave differently to the same circumstances: You oppose, you follow because of idealism, you sell yourself to the regime or you muddle through as an "inner emigrant"...
I think that Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck is rooted in Catholicism. He wrote the script for "Das Leben Der Anderen" at the Heiligenkreuz Abbey in Austria, which is led by his uncle. And so he shows compassion for the moral struggling by some of his characters - and leaves it to the movie's audience to ask itself how it would have reacted in similar situations. Or how it even behaves today in "harmless times"... Or knows how to behave like a "good man"?
"Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." (Psalm 19, 12-13)