Superb political drama. Compelling, intriguing and emotionally engaging.

Rating: 8/10 (5 May 2007)

Here's a film that achieves that most difficult of things: balancing the weight of its politics with genuine emotional engagement. The Lives Of Others never feels like a history lecture or political diatribe. We care for the characters first, and discuss the socio-political commentary post-viewing. Set amid the latter years of Communist East Germany, The Lives Of Others concerns playwright Georg Dreyman (Koch), a playwright who has attracted the irk of the Stasi, East Germany's main intelligence force. The grotesquely corrupt minister of culture (Thieme) places him and his actress-wife under secret surveillance for the GDR. The man sent to spy on the couple is lonely stasi officer Hauptmann Wiesler (Mühe). Pale-faced and relatively unassuming to look at, Wiesler always keeps his dullish grey jacket zipped up, his face never revealing more than a whisker of emotion, other than to the camera in moments of intimacy. His voyeurism of this couple leads him to become morally conflicted. He discovers vital information about them and their plans, but begins to doubt whether reporting it would best serve his own interests. Meanwhile, tensions grow between Georg and his wife Christa, who has to solicit the vile culture minister in order to remain immune from interrogation.
The Lives Of Others is a fascinating movie. Without the need for high-speed chases, a zillion edits or an exploding helicopter shot, it remains a thoroughly engaging, insightful and compelling experience. Ulrich Mühe delivers a remarkably underplayed performance as the stasi guard with a conscience, reminiscent of Gene Hackman's low-key surveillance freak Harry Caul in The Conversation (1974). He has steely-blue eyes that fool his companions into thinking he's bulletproof, but the truth couldn't be further from their grasp. You will come out of the screening with many issues to discuss, not least the film's insightful take on the high rate of suicide in 1980s East Germany, and it's relatively compassionate feel for its characters. Some may complain about portraying a stasi officer in such a compassionate light, but it works beautifully within the context of the tale. It may not break into the mainstream, but it is a fantastic debut feature.