I recall registering shock and disbelief when one of my favourite films of the year, "Pan's Labyrinth" lost the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in February. To me, it was like the Mexican version of "Spirited Away", another of my all time favourites, where fantasy is meshed with reality, transporting audiences back to where dreams were sometimes reality, and where we still believed unconditionally ...
What was this film "The Lives of Others" (Official site)? I had never even heard of it before its win? Was it an oversight like the winner of Best Picture, "The Departed" and last year's "Crash" ("Babel" and "Brokeback Mountain" have my vote)? How could a film that won three other Oscars lose out on its primary category?
Some foreign films will never receive worldwide distributorship if there wasn't any awards buzz or wins. Unlike "Pan's Labyrinth", it is not going to attract mainstream attention because it does not boast of any special effects. They get lost in the maze of blockbuster rubbish because audiences prefer to dumb themselves down for the sake of fancy CGI effects and reality TV. Thankfully, "The Lives Of Others" will never suffer the same fate. However, films thrive most on "word of mouth" recommendation, and like "Babel", this is an important film that has to be made, and to be watched. Hence, my strong recommendation and "plea" for you to watch it.
Set in 1984 where the tyrannical Stasi (East German police) made it their duty to monitor their citizens, they believe it was their right to know everything. We are introduced to Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe), a brilliant officer who scored well in his examinations and stuck to every rule in the book, the cold hearted product of the stereotypical horror we identify in such movies. Due to his stoic adherence in life and strong loyalty, he does not possess the slimy characteristics of his fellow classmate, Oberstleutnant Anton Grubitz, who he helped to score well enough in his exams but had sucked up to the right people to attain a higher position in the police force, and is now his superior.
Wiesler is invited by Grubitz to a new play staged by Geord Dryman (Sebastian Kohl), a popular playwright who has managed to stay under the government's radar and is in a relationship with accomplished stage actress Christa-Maira Sieland (Martina Gedeck), the lead in the play. Actors, playwrights and all artists are restricted within strict boundaries of what is permissible in those days and almost all of their apartments are bugged for information. Unlike, several of his fellow artists who have been blacklisted, he has played the right game by staying uncontroversial, almost clean. This raises the suspicions of Wiesler even though Grubitz watered it down. However, when Grubitz meets Minister Bruno Hempf, who runs the police force, he takes on Weisler's suggestions as his own and when the Minister praises him for his sharp instincts, claims silent credit for it.
Weisler takes on the job of monitoring Dryman's activities and starts living through the lives of Dryman and Sieland. It is through them that his loneliness and the emptiness of his heart and life is brought for the first time to his attention. He yearns for love and belonging, and his only close relationship is a sexual one with a prostitute who works on the clock, like Wiesler. He starts to contest his beliefs and loyalty to Stasi. Like a quote at the beginning where it is believed that people don't change, we watch the new Wiesler unravel before us.
This is a political thriller which ultimately shows the strength that one is capable of, and though Weisler is not entirely responsible for the fall of Berlin Wall five years later, he can admit towards being instrumental towards a shift of perceptions in the free world. Even though he does "sacrifice" his livelihood for this decision, he is rescued from this Stasi terror in his life. The ending in unsentimental but extremely moving. I felt tears welling as I sensed Dryman's gratitude.
I loved this film and rate it along "Babel" as the best films of the year. Like "Babel" who tackles social issues, this is a film not to be missed. In today's world where the right winged ruling political parties are using scare tactics to frighten us into conformity, this is a burning and current issue. With governments tightening its security laws and establishing impossible laws linking anyone with any connections, no matter how small, to possible acts of terrorism, we have to stand brave. If efficient gatekeepers are already keeping the truth from us, then we have to make sure that we are heard. Even though it sounds impossible that we will "return" to this terror state, nothing is impossible if we do not wake up and choose our leaders carefully. Do we want to live under leaders who incite/remind us of terror, or those who truly inspire?
First time film-maker and writer, Florian Henckel von Donnersmark, implores us to examine this through this wonderful, immaculately acted piece of art. With many lessons to be learnt within, this film outstrips "Pan's Labyrinth" in all ways and is a most deserving winner of the Best Foreign Film Oscar. It has also been honoured by many other International awards, especially for the lead actor, Ulrich Mühe, who is superlative. It is interesting to note that he is a known enemy of the Stasi, and was himself spied upon by four members of his theatre group, and his late wife who he was married to for 6 years, was also an informant to the Stasi. It was also recommended that he be sent to an isolation camp in the event of a national crisis, which could have inspired him for his performance and his involvement in this movie.
This is film making at its best, reaffirming the importance of arts and film making in our lives, to educate, influence and inspire ...
Rating: 9.5/10
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