Release Year - 2006
IMDB Rating - Rated 55 among the tops (8.5/10) IMDB LInk
Awards - 2007 Academy Award in category Best Foreign Language Film
7 Deutscher Filmpreis awards as best film, best director, best screenplay, best actor, best supporting actor etc
Wikipedia Link - The Lives of Others
Review
The movie is set in the turbulent times of East Germany in 1984. In those times, the rivalry between West Germany and East Germany was the reflection of the cold war between USA and USSR. East Germany was under USSR influence while West under USA. This film depicts the cultural atmosphere in East Germany under the communist regime.
Gerd Wiesler is a dedicated Stasi agent who believes in all policies of his government. Georg Dreyman is a playwright who is a true communist but against the policies of the government. Christa-Maria is the girlfriend of Dreyman, an actress, who wants to carry on with her career. Wiesler suspected Dreyman for anti-government activities and started 24 hour surveillance on him. Dreyman wrote an article against the government and published in a West Germany magazine, but Dreyman was never arrested. Christa-Maria got involved with a minister and later on paid for breaking off with him. She confessed about the Dreyman article and the typewriter’s hiding place, but Stasi did not find the typewriter at that place. What’s happening, Dreyman under continuous surveillance, doing anti-government activities which are enough for his arrest, but still not arrested? Who is saving him, or he has some bug inside Stasi? This is the story of a person who goes against all odds for the sake of right and justified. He puts everything at risk, but did not deter from the right path. But was he rewarded accordingly at the end? If you want to read the main events of the story then go ahead, or watch the movie instead of killing the excitement here, as I strongly recommend to watch this masterpiece.
Story Summary
Gerd Wiesler is shown as a dedicated and rigid Stasi agent who thinks that Georg Dreyman, a playwright, is defecting to the West. Though his superior did not agree on this suspicion however allowed him to go ahead with surveillance. Wiesler bugged the Dreyman’s house and started monitoring his activities day and night, reflecting his dedication to the policies of the government body. Dreyman was living with his girlfriend, Christa-Maria who was an actress. Wiesler was a fan of this actress. During the surveillance, he found that a minister was interested in Christa-Maria and is trying to remove Dreyman using Stasi. Though Wiesler was a true communist and believer of all policies, but this misuse of power by that minister put him disgust. He started thinking differently. Meanwhile Christa-Maria had to get into an affair with the minister as he was the only supplier for the drug which she was addicted. Dreyman came to know about the affair and tried to stop her, but she refused stating the reason that they need the minister’s support to go ahead in their field. During those days, in East Germany, it was really difficult if you came under the radar of the government.
On another side, Wiesler, had turned his point of view about the whole monitoring business. You believe in the things which you think are right, though you have not seen the reality by yourself. Wiesler, being a Stasi agent, believed in everything what Stasi was doing. However when he came to know the reality of the whole business, the human character inside him came into picture. He judged the circumstances and decided to take the right path, though it posed a great danger to his life and service. Dreyman was also a true communist, however he did not accept the extreme policies of that regime, such as stopping all cultural activities, putting people in close monitoring, stopping all foreign contacts etc. One of the good friend of Dreyman was a victim of these policies and he committed suicide one day. This provoked Dreyman to write an article on suicidal deaths in East Germany. Dreyman’s friends were quite amazed that how come he is not under surveillance, though his activities are very much provoking for the government. Dreyman also thinks that he is not under any monitor. He told to his friends that he will be publishing this article in a West Germany magazine and if he is arrested then it is sure that he was under surveillance. He parceled this article to be published in a West Germany magazine. The article was published and East Germany government was very angry over this. But Dreyman was not arrested…..why… because Wiesler is falsely reporting in this reports that he did not see such anti-government activities during his surveillance. Wiesler even met Christa-Maria and told her that she did not need any support of any minister to support her in her career as she is a great actress. This made Christa-Maria to stop all contacts with the minister, hence made him furious. The minister made Stasi to arrest her under charges of purchasing drugs. Wiesler was asked to interrogate Christa-Maria to find who wrote that article, as Stasi suspected her boyfriend for this article. Stasi told Wiesler that the result of this interrogation will also determine his future. What a person will do in this intense moment?? The human nature is hard to understand as we all behave very differently from the ideal path in such moments. What will Wiesler do? He started the interrogation and gave enough clues to Christa-Maria, not to reveal the hiding place of the typewrite. What’s this typewrite business! The East Germany government had all the information of all the typewriters given and sold in the country. If anyone write something, by getting the original manuscript the government will know who wrote this. Wow, isn’t this amazing. But Dreyman imported a typewriter illegally from West Germany and wrote the article on that typewriter. Though the East Germany government got the original manuscript, but they found that it was not written on any typewrite available in East Germany. Now they have to find that typewriter on which the article was drafted. They had all suspicion on Dreyman so were hopeful that Christa-Maria will reveal the hiding place. Christa-Maria did reveal that in the interrogation. Stasi raided Dreyman’s house and went directly to the hiding place. Dreyman came to know that Christa-Maria had revealed the place. Christa-Maria saw the expressions on Dreyman’s face and ran outside. She got hit by a moving vehicle and died. Inside the house, Stasi open up the hiding place, but there was no typewriter!!!! How this is possible, Dreyman did not know beforehand that Christa-Maria had spilled out so he couldn’t remove the typewrite. Yes, it was Wiesler who removed the typewriter and hid it in his car. What a risk he took to save Christa-Maria and Dreyman, why because he knew that the government is wrong and he decided to stood with the right cause.
This is followed by the destruction of Berlin wall and merger of West and East Germany. Dreyman once met the minister outside a play, and curiously asked that he thought that he should have been under surveillance but why he was not. Minister answered that he was under this all the time. Now Dreyman is confused and surprised that how this can be true. He went to government archives and retrieved his surveillance records. He got a good number of records, four-five times in volume as compared to other people who were in the archives. He went through all the records and after that asked for the identity of the Stasi agent who did the monitoring. He found Wiesler, now working with post office as an ordinary post man, this is the reward he got standing with the right and justice. Dreyman wrote a novel titled, Sonata for a Good Man. In the last scene Wiesler is shown purchasing the book from book store. The book is dedicated to “HGWXX/7, in gratitude”, the Stasi agent code of Wiesler. As he purchases the book, he is asked if he wants it gift wrapped and states, "No, it's for me."
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