The Lives Of Others review

The image of life behind the Iron Curtain is often a bleak one: joyless souls, struggling in a colourless world against an oppressive regime. That's a perception the magnificent The Lives Of Others reinforces with a chilling intensity. But what makes it such a powerful and moving film - one well deserving of its Best Foreign Film Oscar - is the way it shows that hope is an indomitable force able to sustain life in the toughest of circumstances.

The Lives Of Others is a small-scale film dealing with big issues: love, power, trust and sacrifice. Written and directed by the Cologne-born Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, TLOO is set in East Berlin in 1984, before the dismantling of the Wall and unification of Germany. The population lives in fear. Their every move and word monitored by the Stasi, East Germany's Secret Police, whose objective is to know everything about everyone.

The impact of such a strategy on society is suffocating. There is little room for happiness and expression. For the petty minded bureaucrats entrusted to enforce this policy, those in the creative world of the arts are eyed particularly suspiciously. Such a regime is also open to abuse. As they say, absolute power corrupts absolutely. The Lives Of Others provides a graphic illustration of the pain and suffering imposed on those forced to live under such a brutal, paranoid administration.

Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe ) is a Captain in the Stasi. A command comes from Government Minister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme) to carry out surveillance on successful playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), who lives with the beautiful actresses, Christa- Maria Sieland., with who Hempf is obsessed. Planting microphones in Dreyman and Sieland's apartment, Wiesler, along with a colleague, monitors every conversation, writing down anything significant..

As Wiesler eavesdrops on the passionate and glamorous couple, his own sad and lonely life comes into sharp focus. In a pivotal and profound scene, the impassive Wiesler listens intently as Dreyman plays the piano. At the end, Dreyman turns to Sieland and quotes Lenin's line about Beethoven's ‘Appassionata': "Can anyone who has heard this music, truly heard it, really be a bad person." It's an epiphanic moment for Wiesler, causing him to question not only his assignment, but his long held beliefs and a government that employs such methods. Mühe is extraordinary in his ability to convey with almost imperceptible shifts, all of Wiesler's repressed emotions.

On first appearances Wiesler and Dreyman appear to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, with nothing in common, but it becomes evident that neither man can be too easily defined. Each is complex and conflicted. The Lives Of Others moves at a considered pace, building to a shocking climax as the net closes in on the two men. If there is any criticism, it is that The Lives Of Others provides a very biased and single-minded view of East Germany's totalitarianism, but it's one that is absolutely compelling.

Kevin Murphy