It is so good that it even hurts

Rating: 10/10 (24 August 2017)

I just love cold war movies, but this one is seen not from the American/British perspective, but from the people who were on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
In the movie, we get an idea of how it was to live in a country that feels like a prison (first rule: if you try to emigrate, they will probably arrest you, torture you, and even kill you or if you succeed, go after your family and friends). Despite so much oppression and terror, there is some intellectual life, with plays, music, books and some discreet bohemian life.
But the problem is that the secret police is everywhere, and being a freethinker will cause you trouble. The movie is essentially about an efficient police operative, who slowly regains his humanity tries to help a couple that is going to be arrested soon, and he is the one responsible for spying on them.
The movie is a piece of fiction (we don't know whether there were cases of good Samaritans among East German police), but it feels almost like a documentary. I was happy that they won the Academy award for best foreign movie.