In 2006 The Lives of Others, a stunning debut by writer/director Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck, managed to bag the Oscar for best foreign film, deservedly snatching it from the palms of the favourite Pan’s Labyrinth.

Whilst this film may lack the originality that Pan’s Labyrinth has (The Lives of Others has been unfairly labelled the ‘German Conversation’) this film is certainly more assured, accomplished and very important.

It is relevant to every one of us who worry about our privacy and personal security in today’s society because trust me, we’ve got it lucky.

In 80’s East Berlin it was less iron curtain than iron bars; a society trapped and unable to speak in the ‘privacy’ of your own home.

In 1984 East Berlin, everyone who regularly spoke their minds or had a powerful creative output were either in hiding or were silenced.

The Stasi (think German KGB) surveyed anyone under suspicion and managed to recruit (through forceful techniques) informers to spy on their closest friends.

One particular playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) is the latest under suspicion. He lives with successful actress Christ Marie Sieland (Martina Gedeck) and their private lives about to be revealed.

However, first the audience is introduced to Stasi man Gerd Wiesler (the late Ulrich Muhe). A man dedicated to his job; his cold face acts as a stone wall of emotionless repression. That and his ruthless efficiency make him a frighteningly dangerous man but one appears immediately vulnerable.

The film suggests he is perhaps the biggest victim of the whole system; he is devoid of any emotion, eats ready-cooked meals and brings prostitutes round for company; he is a loner with little social life or skills.

The job he so aptly performs has in fact destroyed him as a man. So when he is the one to listen in and survey Dreyman, the cracks begin to appear.

Wiesler is clearly the metaphor for a system which was flawed in its own ideology and for a cause no-one actually believed in.

It’s an interesting character study as well as a window into the politics of a forgotten era. It makes for compelling viewing.

We watch Wiesler gradually open up; his respect for those he is listening in on affect his ability to dispassionately observe, record and collect what he finds.

Ulrich Muhe is excellent in the role; he manages to convey to the audience his flaws but manages to get the audience to gradually side and empathise with his character, as does Wiesler with Dreyman in the film.

It’s Wiesler’s character that really grounds the film in its moral dilemmas, humanist edge and tragedy.

The omniscient perspective we are granted, constantly leaves us on a knife edge and Donnersmarck manages to escalate the tension in each following scene; he perfectly balances the tense moments with the drama that follows, without ever resorting to the melodramatic.

Instead Donnersmarck leaves the audience to become immersed in the discussed ideals and politics and let us contemplate the character’s fates.

The characters' hidden motivations, paranoia and the dramatic irony that is presented on screen give The Lives of Others its pedestal to stand on and tower over all competition in foreign cinema.

The final act may be the least taut of the three but it is the most rewarding. It’s one filled with poignant scenes and a final freeze fame that is hard to shake off (due to the loss of Ulrich Muhe) but it’s also an act filled with optimism; a Berlin distant from the desaturated colours that permeated Berlin in the first two acts.

The camera work is also rather sublime; the camera seems to revolve around Wiesler’s predicaments and the loose and empty framing emphasise his distance with others.

The Lives of Others is a thoughtful, moving and daring piece of cinema that could have easily meandered down the road of the nostalgic optimism of Goodbye Lenin, but ironically it is films like that, that removed the deep wounds of Berlin Wall paranoia and oppression that made audiences ready to watch the truth that is most present in The Lives of Others.

A fantastic script, great performances and a bravura direction by Donnersmarck leave this writer/director one to keep eyes on (just don’t go tapping his house).

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