The Lives of Others

Set in 1984 East Germany, a loyal Stasi officer is assigned to surveil a celebrated playwright and his actress girlfriend suspected of disloyalty to the state. As he listens obsessively to their intimate lives, he begins to question his own devotion to the oppressive regime. The film is a powerful meditation on surveillance, art, conscience, and the quiet acts of courage that define our humanity.

• Won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007.
• Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck was only 33 when filming.
• Real Stasi headquarters in Berlin were used as filming locations.
• The film was banned from screening in some former Eastern Bloc countries.
• Ulrich Mühe, the lead actor, was actually surveilled by the Stasi.

• To think that people like you once ran this country.
• Can anyone who has heard this music truly be a bad person?
• We are the party, and the party is us.
• This is for me.
• There are people who can feel that others mean well with them.