The Lives of others

The Germans have been churning out good films over the last few years and I am glad to have watch them.

2006 The Lives of Others
2005 Sophie Scholl - The Final Days
2004 Downfall
2003 Goodbye Lenin

Looking at the above titles, one probably wonder if the Germans have an obsession with their historical past, in particular with the Nazi era, the fall of the Berlin wall cos most of the recent films have stories revolving around that subject. Admittedly, these are events that shake the world and Germany have a big role in it. The leaders were responsible for the Holocaust and the divergence of the German states and one would think the way out to hide from all these shameful pasts was to sweep it under the carpets and not bring it up again. But no, the modern generation did the opposite. Films starts sprouting over the years and the stories usually centers around issues that happens during the traumatic eras. I must applaude the Germans for having the sanity and courage to show to people what they have done wrong in the past as this serves to remind and educate the young of some worthy history lessons.

I went to catch The Lives of others last week, the film freshed from winning the Best Foreign Film in the recent Academy Awards. The story was set in East Berlin during in 1984 and revolves around the Stasi, which is the secret police of East Germany. The Stasi influenced almost every aspect of life in the East Germans back then and it had a network of civilians who infiltrated their family/friends lives to report to the authorities.

The lead character Gerd Wiesler (looks abit like Kevin Spacey) plays a staunch Stasi agent controller. In his routine job, he interrogates people, with no mercy, till they reveal the underlying facts that the Stasi is after. In a special assignment, he was tasked to spy on a playwright Georg Dreyman, who was suspected of Western leanings. The playright's house was wired and tapped to a nearby room where Gerd sit and listen to the conversations and the exchanges that happens within the house.

I must admit the movie was quite slow paced in the beginning that I dozed off abit :) , but it got better when the story unfolds. Gerd began to empthaise on Georg and this got Gerd's career into trouble ... Heard of the Stockholm syndrome before? Actually the storyline likens to this effect, which is a psychological response sometimes seen for example in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage can show signs of having feelings of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger (or at least risk) in which the hostage has been placed.

Watch it to find out more!