The Lives of Others

Communist East Germany provides the setting for The Lives of Others (2006), Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's remarkable debut. Framed as a thriller, it's a beautiful portrait of individuals struggling to transcend a totalitarian state.
Captain Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) works as interrogator and spy for the Stasi. He initiates surveillance on Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), a playwright disgusted with Communist treatment of German artists. Dreyman debates whether to help a colleague (Hans-Uwe Bauer) smuggle a damaging report to West Germany. His girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), presses him to act while enduring the advances of a sleazy Minister (Thomas Thiele). Wiesler hears everything but grows attached to his charges, shielding them from his superiors.
Von Donnersmarck flawlessly evokes East Germany, a repressive state where a joke or whispered remark can lead to imprisonment or worse. Wiesler evinces a simple faith in Communism that's eroded by his superiors. Lt. Colonel Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur) wants to nab Dreyman to advance his career; the Minister blackballs Christa-Maria for spurning him. Even in this regime, repression turns on pettiness and personal rivalries: the bohemian artists are moral paragons compared to Communist functionaries.
Complicity is The Lives of Others' primary motif, whether policeman, Party hack or artist. A state-sponsored writer, Dreyman has no qualms with socialism but despises a state who'd suppress its artists. Christa-Maria spurs her lover to sedition, yet can't match her own words. In a key scene, she meets Wiesler and laments her uncertainty and cowardice. This indecision makes her an easy mark for the Stasi, trapping her into informing on her colleagues. Artists under dictators walk a moral minefield; there's no easy choice between complicity and resistance.
But The Lives of Others turns on its protagonist, possibly cinema's most sympathetic secret policeman. At first, Wiesler seems like a Teutonic Harry Caul, professionally detached and personally barren. He doesn't laugh at jokes, has no friends, can't even satisfy a prostitute. But disgusted by his opportunist bosses and moved by his charge's human drama, his detachment disappears; he ignores a child reporting his father's remarks and doctors reports of surveillance. Less voyeur than atoner, Wiesler uses his marginal power to help rather than destroy his charges, regardless of personal consequences.
Ulrich Muhe starred in a long-running television series (The Last Witness), several Michael Heineke films and Costa-Gavras's Amen (2002) before his untimely death in 2007. Muhe reportedly drew on personal experience, enduring Stasi surveillance himself in the '80s. He's wonderfully subdued throughout, suggesting Wiesler's angsty disconnect through minimalist gestures and pained facial expressions. It's hard to convey anguish without chewing scenery, but Muhe subtly evinces Wiesler's humanity through a rigidly detached exterior.
Sebastian Koch (Black Book) excels in a character role, showing both charm and wary guardedness. Martina Gedeck (The Baader-Meinhoff Complex) provides solid support, switching between sensual, forceful lover and trapped, tragic traitor with powerful conviction. Ulrich Tukur (Taking Sides) plays Wiesler's wisecracking superior; Thomas Thieme (Downfall), a lecherous minister.
Impeccably directed, perfectly acted and richly layered, The Lives of Others is a remarkable experience. So far, Donnersmarck's only subsequent feature is The Tourist (2010), a limp Johnny Depp vehicle I recall seeing but remember nothing about. Here's hoping his next film's more in line with his first.