Even spies have a soul

Rating: Null/10 (5 May 2018)

A Stasi trainer, Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe), is ordered to place a famous play writer Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) and his girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) under constant surveillance. The orders come from the highest echelons of the government, but Wiesler slowly begins to understand that the motives for them may not be as patriotic as they should. And at the same time the life of these two content souls begins to lure him in.
Despite this film being just over a decade old, it feels much older. And in this case that works in the film's favour, giving it an authentic feel, like it could have happened right there and then. it gives the film weight, which is good, because Stasi and their human right violations are some of the darkest aspects of East German history. And yet, at the same time the film tries to shy away from black and white moralizing. Wiesler's character, despite being a high-ranking Stasi officer, is not a monster, does posses a soul and certainly has his sympathetic moments. This has apparently caused certain amount of controversy, some believing that Stasi and its legacy should be shown no mercy, no sympathy. Which seems uncomfortably harsh to me.
Then again, I was only a few months old when the Berlin Wall came down. For me, this is history, something that happened in the distant past. It's funny for me to think that the events of this film took place when my parents were teenagers or young adults. The world has certainly changed since then.
For me this film is more interesting than it is good. Certainly it's acted well and directing is superb, but it still seems more like a gateway into a subject, a conversation starter, rather than a great movie in its own right.