The Lives of Others

At first glance, “The Lives of Others” is just another “1984”-aping, “Big Brother is watching,” dystopian storyline. After all, the film is set in East Germany in 1984, before the fall of the Berlin Wall—a time when the German Democratic Republic (GDR) kept a strict control on its citizens.

However, first-time director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck enhances that common storyline, making raw human relationships the central component of the drama, rather than the history of political events or theory.

The conflict between loyalty to one’s country and loyalty to one’s moral standards is the core struggle for the characters in the film. Donnersmarck juxtaposes different technical elements to deepen the intensity of the decisions that the characters must make. For example, the cold, bland, dark colors of those characters loyal to the state are complemented by the warm, decorative, and vibrant surroundings of more liberal characters.

The plot centers on the government of the GDR, a prevalent force in the lives of East Germany’s citizens through a vast system of spies and security controls. With the help of the Stasi secret police forces, the GDR monitors the country for potential disloyalty.

“The Lives of Others” captures human compassion at its most sophisticated level, as Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), a famous East German writer, is placed under 24-hour watch, with Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) as the lead spy.

But in hopes of uncovering Dreyman’s disloyalties, the snitch finds his own. Wiesler’s intimate viewing into the literal lives of others opens his eyes to the things lacking in his own life, such as the liberation of free thinking, the passion of reciprocated love, and the melody that comes from various arrangements of keys on a piano.

To the audience’s surprise, as well as Wiesler’s, the stoicism of the Stasi agent is gradually edged away through his close contact with Dreyman’s life. The elegant internal conflict that Wiesler experiences is the predominant struggle in the film, as what he stands for begins to crumble and his loyalties shift from the GDR to the greater concerns of the human condition.

Along with Mühe’s moving display of the breakdown of tradition, “The Lives of Others” offers a number of other talented actors that display some unforgettable moments during the film. Hans–Uwe Bauer, who plays a controversial writer and friend to Dreyman, adds an important element of anger that clashes with Dreyman’s naïvely optimistic attitude.

Martina Gedeck, who plays Dreyman’s girlfriend, delivers the most clear external example of the destruction wrought by internal conflict—the audience watches as she is worn down to a nub by the struggle between right and wrong.

The director also makes the score a key element, elevating it from mere wallpaper to a vehicle of communication between the audience and the film. The music remains soft, allowing the volume to stem from the characters, each screaming in their moral conflicts.

Critics have been hypnotized by the melody of the drama—the film won Best Picture, Best Screenwriter, and Best Actor at the European Film Academy Awards, and has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

A unique kind of political thriller, beautifully incorporating history into personal troubles, Donnersmarck’s film distinguishes itself through its observations on the human condition under the most strained of circumstances. “The Lives of Others” takes attention away from the fact that Big Brother is watching, and instead focuses on the decaying moral infrastructure behind Big Brother.