Review of 'The Lives of Others'

Set in 1984, presumably to recall George Orwell’s dystopic vision of totalitarianism, writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck recreates East Germany five years before the fall of the Berlin wall. The Ministry for State Security – or Stasi – one of the most effective intelligence operations in the world, used a huge network of spies and informers to know everything about its citizens and act as the “Shield and Sword” of the state. Von Donnersmarck eases us into this soulless, drab world of surveillance and suspicion through the lives of a group of writers and actors and, once there, spins an intensely dramatic and beautifully human story – one worthy of its many awards, including an Oscar for Best Foreign Film earlier this year.

Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) is a successful and seemingly loyal playwright in the German Democratic Republic. He is a confident and poised figure who has never put a political foot wrong in the carefully watched world of artists, despite seeing a number of talented friends blacklisted and unable to either work or travel to the West. But it is this squeaky-clean reputation, and his choice of actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) as girlfriend, that brings him to the attention of senior party officials, men who believe they have a nose for treachery. After a few whispers in an empty theatre, Stasi Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) is assigned to spy on Dreyman and find anything that could be used to incriminate him as disloyal. Wiesner is a hardened professional who appears to be the very embodiment of the passionless, clinical system that preys upon the tiny human weaknesses we all surrender to in our daily lives.

After skillfully establishing his surveillance operation, Wiesler spends his days and nights watching and listening to the writer and actress in their small apartment filled with books and paintings and piano. He notes down matters of significance in his reports. Nothing is overlooked. Even their lovemaking is reduced to a typewritten sentence on a clean page of a secret report. It is here – in the relationship between the watcher and the watched - that Von Donnersmarck skillfully explores the real drama at work in the story. Reduced to monitoring the lives of others in a joyless state, Wiesler begins to feel something towards the couple, whose passionate lives are laid out in stark contrast to his own empty existence. And having developed feelings, he is forced to choose between intervening to help the couple against the silent and destructive forces that have crushed his own humanity, or risk his own career and reputation.

It’s a masterful work for a first-time director, combining intelligence and emotional insight in a story full of characters we care for and plot developments that steadily propel you to the edge of your seat. Ulrich Mühe’s portrayal of the hollowed out Stasi officer who carefully rekindles a version of humanity, is spellbinding, and only one of many beautifully observed performances. The production design and music also make a significant contribution to this evocative study of the human condition in a world without trust.