The Lives of Others

Berlin, 1984. Gerd Wiesler is an officer in the Stasi, the East German Secret Police. When he is presented with the case of Georg Dreyman, a socialist writer, Wiesler decides to closely test whether the man is truly faithful to the party. He wiretaps Dreyman’s apartment, and over the course of long days, listens to the events in the life of a stranger. He finds out about an affair that Dreyman is conducting with Christa, a young actress whose ideological position is not completely resolute. Slowly, Wiesler becomes more and more involved in their lives, until his superiors decide to intervene. “The Lives of Others,” which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2006, is a biting political drama that successfully manages to grasp people’s lives under East Germany’s intrusive regime.