The Lives of Others

My netflix movie last week was The Lives of Others, the German movie that won the Best Foreign Film for 2006 (in what was, to me, the most hotly contested category that year). It's the story of two men-one is a writer (mainly of plays) and the other is the Stasi policeman assigned to listen in to his life. Dreyman (the playwright) lives with his girlfriend, a celebrated actress while Wiesler listens to everything they do, in order to find out whether Dreyman is a security risk/a dissident/because they want to. Wiesler believes in the East German Socialist cause-he views himself as a patriot, so spying on a playwright is not unheard of, especially in a country where everyone was turned against everyone else in order to preserve the East German state. But then Wiesler meets Minister Hempf, who takes a great liking to Dreyman's girlfriend, the lovely and talented (and a drug addict) Christa-Maria Sieland. Hempf uses his power to spy on the couple, he uses it to assault Christa-Maria and he uses it to try and destroy her. Dreyman knows some of this, enough to cause him intense pain. He knows Christa-Maria goes to see the Minister to she can continue to get the drugs and that she goes to keep them safe and it kills him. But it also kills Wiesler, who actually believed in the State-so when he realizes what the Minister is doing, he gets involved as well, instead of just listening...

This is movie is good on so many levels, it's almost ridiculous. It's intelligent, funny and moving in so many different ways. It starts off as it it's going to be a political thriller-with the state spying on its citizens to find out what they're doing-and it is. Then, it seems it will be about the abuse of that power by the state and it's about that too. Then it seems it will be about love and betrayal-and what people will do to protect the ones they love and what they won't do-and it's about that as well. And it's interesting-Dreyman and Sieland don't really change-they are trying to live their lives the best way they can, without betraying each other-but Wiesler changes just by virtue of listening to them and being a part of their lives, tangential as he may be. There is much to say about this time and place in which lovers, neighbors and strangers spy on each other in order to save them and to save themselves, but I don't want to give everything away. I'll just say that every performance is good-Sebastian Koch is very good as the playwright who is hurt by his lover's behavior and begs her not to see the Minister who could ruin their lives, Martina Gedeck is excellent as Christa-Maria, who doubts her own abilities as an actress, until she uses them in real life. But the best is Ulrich Muhe as Wiesler, a man who believes in what he is doing, until he sees the personal toll it takes-and attempts to help them. This is a great movie about love, honor,betrayal and trust and the cost to be paid for each.