The Lives of Others
Surveillance Cinema
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2h 17m
Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck • 2006 • Germany
Starring Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch
Set in East Berlin in the early 1980s, this acclaimed debut feature from Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck focuses on GDR’s pervasive and chilling surveillance state. The successful dramatist Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) and his longtime companion Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), a popular actress, are big intellectual stars in the socialist state, though in private they’re not always loyal to the party line. Secret service agent Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) is instructed to observe the couple. What begins as a routine surveillance operation motivated by Cold War politics soon becomes an obsession fueled by personal desires.
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