nan | 楠木

Winner of the 2007 Oscar for best foreign language film, The Lives of Others is an engaging drama about the depressing lack of freedom under the communist regime of East Germany.

The film follows Wiesler, a wiretapping specialist of the National Security, who has been put in charge of surveillance of a high profile writer, Georg Dreyman. Wiesler develops a fascination and genuine admiration for Dreyman’s girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland, who is an accomplished actress. Driven by this admiration, and an awakening of conscience, Wiesler puts himself at risk when he tries to cover up Dreyman’s “anti-state” activities.

This picture is both a chilling thriller and a vivid character study. Wiesler appears at first to be the symbolic worker drone – a middle aged, single man who is absolutely loyal to the state and who is proud of his expertise (surveillance and interrogation). However, under the numbness of his cold face we can observe traces of humanity – the fire in his eyes when he first sees Christa-Maria on stage, the deep thought he elapses into after reading a contraband book taken from Dreyman’s apartment. He starts to care the lovers, trying to steer them clear from harm’s way, and in doing so perhaps he has also rediscovered his own values.

The subtlety of this flow of emotions is what makes this film such an accomplishment. Wiesler has no one to discuss his internal struggles, and as a trained secret agent he hardly lets his true feelings show – but through the slightest of facial expressions and body gestures the message is clearly conveyed. And the bleakness of the social background is not spelt out in big capital letters, so to speak – it is just silently evident, from the lifeless bar where only a few guests drank in dead quiet to the often empty streets and Wiesler’s dreary apartment.

There has been criticism of the film’s plot, mostly at its plausibility. The biggest issue, as I see it, is how Wiesler could have the authority to operate alone – it is certainly much more realistic if he and another agent spied on each other. However, such a setup would have made the plot much more convoluted, and I’m willing to tolerate such a plot of convenience for the sake of the message being delivered.

German films about life in East Germany, as far as I know, are still a relatively new thing. Which is understandable – the wall was still standing just two decades ago, and it’s much more easier and convenient to forget about the unfortunate past and get on with life (after all, the real-life people of such stories are trying to live a new life). The same goes for films about the cultural revolution in China. However, there are so many lessons we can learn from those moments in history that makes the recounting of it (however painful or inconvenient to some as that may be) ultimately well worthwhile.

9/10