YNOT at the Movies

"The Lives of Others" (Das Leben der Anderen) tells a chilling story set in the early 1980s in East Germany before the fall of Berlin Wall.

Georg Dreyman is a successful play writer who has a beautiful actress girlfriend. Like many artists in that era living in East Germany, they are spied on by the State Security: Stasi. The agent in charge is Wiesler, HGW, who is superb at what he does shown at the beginning of the film. However, his ideology and his heart comes to a crossroad when he faces the decision on what to report about these artists.

Watching the film, I can't help but compare the Wiesler with Oskar Schindler, who is also German, saved many Jew's lives during the World War II.

History repeats itself.

It's a long film and the pace is a little slow, but I didn't get bored. By the end of the film, I am deeply moved by the story. When Wiesler said the last line of the film: "No, it's for me," I found tears in my eyes. Everyone will understand what that sentence means at the end of the film. It carries so much weight and emotion that one (very old) man in the audience literally broke down crying: I mean he was really crying out loud.

My rating: 8 out of 10.