Das Leben der Anderen

Ulrich Muehe

The Lives of Others (2006)
Original Title: "Das Leben der Anderen"

Martina GedeckMartina Gedeck, Ulrich Muehe, R: for some sexuality/nudity. - 2 hrs 17 mins

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
THEATRICAL RELEASE -- Feb 9, 2007 Limited

An emotional political drama with an intelligent script that doesn't prey on the audience's emotions.

MOVIE SYNOPSIS At once a political thriller and human drama, THE LIVES OF OTHERS begins in East Berlin in 1984, five years before Glasnost and the fall of the Berlin Wall and ultimately takes us to 1991, in what is now the reunited Germany. more...
GENRE Dramas, Foreign Films, Spies, Germany, Cold War
OFFICIAL MOVIE SITE • The Official The Lives of Others Site

MOVIE REVIEWS

"An emotional political drama with an intelligent script."

A neatly crafted thriller with first rate acting, directing and writing combined with spy paraphernalia and political intrigue. Fully deserving of its status as Germany's Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee.
Ron Wilkinson Monsters and Critics

A refreshing alternative to the whimsical and nostalgic look back on Communist life in Good Bye Lenin!
Kent Turner Film-Forward.com

It is an emotionally powerful movie that doesn't leave you when you walk out the theatre doors.
Jim Slotek - Jam! Movies

The director is fortunate to have cast actors who fully embody their roles.
Peter Rainer - Christian Science Monitor

If this doesn't get the Foreign film Oscar, there's no justice in this World.
Eric Lurio -- Greenwich Village Gazette

Bleak yet never completely despairing, this superbly acted and richly atmospheric film has a gravitas and thematic complexity that's sadly absent from most contemporary American films.
Timothy Knight - Reel.com

A stunning, even electrifying view of communism in EastGermany as a soulless regime.
Harvey S. Karten - Compuserve

It has a heart you believe in and a working brain to match.
Walter Chaw - Film Freak Central

It's one of the great moviegoing experiences of the year.
Glenn Whipp -- Los Angeles Daily News

Foregoes all the pyrotechnics of flashy thrillers and high-strung spy mysteries for something that gets under the skin. A highly intelligent character drama that passes through the brain before reaching the heart.
Boyd van Hoeij -- europeanfilms.net

It's a great, tense story, and doesn't play simple good guy/bad guy...the characters on both sides are human, all giving lip service to a greater ideology that no-one is actually upholding.
Luke Y. Thompson -- LYTRules.com

Donnersmarck's confident direction, and exemplary ensemble performances, suggest a fundamental question about why governmental wiretapping seems fascistic and indefensible when performed in other countries, but somehow permissible at home.
Cole Smithey - Daily Radar

Scary and realistic ... a much deserved Oscar nominee.
Steve Rhodes - Internet Reviews

A gripping tale of nightmarish voyeurism and the psychological abyss that elevates von Donnersmarck's European nail-biter. [A] sleek and intrusive communist caper.
Frank Ochieng - TheWorldJournal.com

A strikingly impressive film debut.
David Noh - Film Journal International

In short, it's perfect.
Matt McKillop - filmcritic.com

Announcing the arrival of an extremely gifted director, this is at once a fascinating political thriller and a touching human drama that chronicles the shattering impact of the Secret Police not only on its citizens but also on its own officers.
Emanuel Levy - EmanuelLevy.Com

Donnersmarck delivers something extraordinary: a thriller that's entirely adult in both its concerns and perspective which manages to be thoroughly gripping.
Glenn Kenny - Premiere Magazine

A startling political thriller and the year's most urgent and important film, you owe it to yourself to see this beautifully written and directed movie.
Pete Hammond - Maxim

A disturbingly accurate depiction of a national nightmare that ultimately transcends its immediate political statement to stand as a future classic of the political-thriller genre.
Ken Fox - TV Guide's Movie Guide

[Shows] not how fragile human beings are, how susceptible they are to fear and coercion, but to underscore their capacity for compassion and change, and to remind us that our yearning for joy and pleasure is part of what keeps us alive.
Stephanie Zacharek - Salon.com

Moving and deeply satisfying.
Stephanie Zacharek - Salon.com

Despite its melancholy drama, cynical details and depressing backgrounds, The Lives of Others is both an unflinching look back at that nation's past, and a hopeful glance forward to its future. (and it shows the future of the USA)
Stephen Whitty - Newark Star-Ledger

A potent narrative about the transformative effect of involvement in other people's stories, Lives turns its own story into a python-tight embrace of nuanced tension and emotional connection.
Kenneth Turan -- Los Angeles Times

Von Donnersmarck has crafted the best kind of movie: one you can't get out of your head.
Peter Travers -- Rolling Stone

Rich in authentic period atmosphere and performances, but sabotages its best efforts with a sentimental payoff.
Jan Stuart -- Newsday

The Lives of Others is a supremely intelligent, unfailingly honest look at a shadowy period in recent German history.
A.O. Scott - New York Times

The filmmaker's control of story and pacing is so wily, his script so literate (in his feature debut, no less), that to reveal much more would interfere with the thrill of the tentacled plot's twists.
Lisa Schwarzbaum - Entertainment Weekly

One of the most amazing films I have ever seen on the subject of the state’s control over the lives of individuals, both through modern instruments of surveillance and an ingenious ability to recruit and persuade even family members to spy on each other.
Andrew Sarris - New York Observer

A blistering indictment of Germany’s substitution of one Kafka­esque regime for another, as well as a human reminder of how some reviled instruments of repression turned out to be more complex than we ever dreamed about.
Rex Reed - New York Observer

More Cream of the Crop - Judging by the film’s success in Germany and its enthusiastic reception at this year’s Telluride and Toronto film festivals, it’s a good bet that many moviegoers will feel similarly moved. Personally, it gave me the creeps.
Scott Foundas -- L.A. Weekly