The Lives of Others

Best Foreign Language Film at the ‘07 Oscars, plus many other awards. Set in East Berlin just a few years before the Wall came down, this is a compelling political thriller that centres on a talented but disillusioned Stasi secret policeman as he investigates a celebrated writer and his actress wife. But when he discovers the real reason he has been ordered to keep them under surveillance he is forced to choose between his loyalty to the state and his own conscience. Which will he betray? Von Donnersmarck’s directorial debut establishes a brooding atmosphere of suspicion and fear.