The Lives of Others & Snowcake

The Lives of Others

This one won an Oscar for best foreign language film in 2006, with a highly nuanced and intelligent script this political yet very human film grabs you and does not let go. I cannot say enough about these actors, not a bad one in the bunch .Yet Ulrich Muhe, who plays the STASI Captain Gerd Wiesler is to be singled out. An actor, who can allow you to enter his mind with just his facial expression, is a great actor.

The plot line has you following the captain as he does what he does best, listen to others, and find enemies of the state. You slowly watch this finely tuned machine of a man, who begins to feel and become demoralized, warp into a good man. The GDR and the STASI has full power over the lives of others and his own Wielser finds out. There are twists and turns here, like any good political thriller, which one does not expect. The ending will lift your heart.

In an interesting real life twist one learns that only some 10% of west Germans have gone to the archives to see who their informants were during this period. We learn that Ulrich Muhe did exactly that only to find his wife and the mother of his child was one of his informants~ perhaps that is why he excels in this role. To understand the motivation of ones family to inform, one would have to understand those they reported to. Clearly Mr. Muhe understood. I highly recommend this film.

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