Q:Build a movie plot around this: What's the name of the East German authorities? Stasi
A:
In 1984 East Germany, legendary Stasi Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe), code name HGW XX/7, accepts an assignment from his superiors to spy on the playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), who has previously escaped state scrutiny due to his pro-Communist views and international recognition. Wiesler and his team bug the apartment, set up surveillance equipment in an attic, and begin reporting Dreyman's activities. Shortly after his surveillance begins, Wiesler learns the real reason for why Dreyman has been put under surveillance: the Minister of Culture, Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme) covets Dreyman's girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), and is trying to eliminate Dreyman as a romantic rival. While Wiesler's superior, Lt. Col. Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur), sees no problem with this, as it is an opportunity for advancement, the idealist Wiesler is skeptical. Minister Hempf coerces Sieland into having sex with him by exploiting her reliance on the state for employment as an actress and her addiction to prescription medication. After an intervention by Wiesler leads to Dreyman discovering Sieland's relationship with Hempf, he implores her not to meet him again. Sieland flees to a nearby bar where Wiesler, posing as a fan, urges her to be true to herself. She returns home and reconciles with Dreyman, rejecting Hempf.Though a communist and supporter of the regime, Dreyman becomes disillusioned with the treatment of his colleagues by the state. At his birthday party, his friend Albert Jerska (a blacklisted theatrical director) gives him sheet music for Sonate vom Guten Menschen (Sonata for a Good Man). Shortly afterwards, Jerska hangs himself. Dreyman decides to publish an anonymous article on the East German suicide rate in Der Spiegel, a prominent West German newsweekly. Dreyman's article accuses the state of callously ignoring those who commit suicide. Since all East German typewriters are registered, an editor of Der Spiegel smuggles Dreyman a miniature typewriter with a red ribbon....