The Lives of Others (2006)

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; produced by Quirin Berg and Max Wiedemann

 

It’s 1984, and Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) is an officer in the East German State Security Service (the ‘Stasi’), experienced in surveillance and interrogation, and in teaching these techniques. His latest assignment is to spy on Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), a playwright just on the legal side of censorship, and his girlfriend (Martina Gedeck). As the case progresses, Wiesler is disturbed by the reason for it, and the pressure he is under to produce results. Even more disturbing, however, is his growing sympathy for his subjects.

 

A combination of spy thriller, drama and character study, The Lives of Others offers an excellent picture of a police state at its height, when methods of oppression have become perfected, and tyranny routine. At the movie’s heart is the character of Wiesler and the performance of Mühe. Wiesler’s origins might be easy to guess: a typical ‘orphan’ of a dictatorship – whether he has family or not – he is someone who may have found meaning, belonging and importance, in a uniform, in privilege, in power. After twenty years, however, his fulfillment of his duties has become mechanical; he knows what to do, and does it well. Even so, the secret policeman is a human.

 

Mühe’s portrayal is masterful. His Wiesler has become the epitome of both proponent and victim of oppression: his expression almost never changes, his voice is always the same. Even his questions have the flat monotone of dull statements. A secret policeman never gives anything away; those who live under his rule cannot afford to. Yet he manages to convey the growing feelings of a man who has stumbled by accident upon something worth fighting for.

 

The plot does indeed involve a fight. There are no gun-battles, chases or explosions. But there is tension. Slowly, deed by deed, Wiesler begins to back himself into a corner. Ironically, his worst moments are caused by the people for whom he grows concerned. He must hide his changing attitudes not only from his superiors and his colleagues, but he must make sure his subjects are unaware of his actions – both those for them, and those for the Stasi.

 

Hiding the truth is practiced by every character. Thomas Thieme, as a loathsome government minister, and Ulrich Tukur, as a Stasi colonel, give very good performances; their characters seek personal gratification and professional advancement, respectively, all the while disguising their actions as necessary for the country. The viewer feels for Koch’s writer, a man hoping to stay on the inside of the machine, in order to effect its destruction; Gedeck’s character, on the other hand, is involved with two men, for quite different reasons.

 

Watching The Lives of Others made me think of Stander, a film I reviewed in November, 2019. Though a contrast in many ways, that film too was about how the oppression and degradation of an entire country can corrode even those in power. In both movies, the central character, in different ways, is forced by his humanity to act out against the authority he represents.

The Lives of Others also highlights the fact that it is the coöperation of the majority of a population that allows tyranny to flourish. It need not be active participation; it need only be acquiescence. There is a sad scene in which Wiesler blackmails Dreyman’s neighbour into keeping silent about the policeman’s visit to the writer’s flat. Wiesler has taken the precaution of learning about the neighbours, and has a simple expedient at hand – probably for each one – to ensure passivity. There is also a psychologically horrible moment when Wiesler almost turns a child into an informant.

 

The Lives of Others works on several levels, and may be seen as a straight, tense thriller, a drama of conflict, even an historical document; or a combination of these. In any case, it is an entertaining, thoughtful movie, the ending of which will likely be unpredictable to most viewers.