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Ah, those East German police. They were suspicious of anyone and everyone. In this story by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and set a few years before the Berlin Wall fell, a group of actors and playwrights were considered “suspicious.” An order was given to spy on the apartment of the main writer, so the attic was utilized and bugs placed in the apartment. Surveillance began with everything being overheard and then typed into volumes of reports. No computers. The writer/director has a good sense of those times in which the “arts” were given “free reign” but only as long as they complied with their leaders.  

In The Lives of Others, which is really a study in loneliness, Ulrich Muhe plays Gerd, an East German officer or GDR “Stasi,” who is an intuitive detective. He is on the trail of those in the theater and eventually is part of the team who sits in the attic and spies on others. The police are even the silent partner when others are having sex and know every move and love words. Ulrich eventually becomes fond of the actress (Martina Gedeck) and her lover (Sebastian Koch) who share the apartment. They feel free to express their affection in private, while Ulrich must hire a prostitute for sex and has no friends. When there seems to be a spy in the midst of the artists, everyone is suspicious and carry their conversations to the outdoors, with the exception of the actress and the playwright. They are certain their apartment is safe. Wrong.

Ulrich has to make decisions when he wants to hear more and more of the lover’s conversations and takes longer and longer shifts. Also, he finds out that the actress has other lovers, including government officials. People here have decisions to make, too. If you think your neighbor is a spy, do you keep peace in the building and stay quiet, or tell the police and become the dreaded “informer,” perhaps with special privileges? A small thing like looking away at the moment when something is passed from one person to another can be helpful. Such is the way of the society where the art of surveillance really is an art form in itself. 

Martina Gedeck as the actress walks a fine line and does a very good job of portraying likes and dislikes by a slight smile or frown. Sebastian Koch, as her lover, is a gregarious man, actually the kind of man Gerd would like to be. Koch, also, walks a fine line as someone to whom a play is a high form of literature, but how to circumnavigate the police? Ulrich Muhe portrays loneliness in painful view. Here is a man who lives through the actions of others. He sits at a solitary desk, listening to life around him, and he is not part of it. Ulrich meets a crossroad in his life and it is interesting to see what road he takes.
 

For anyone who visited East Germany before the Wall came down, The Lives of Others will bring back memories. Set design is fine and the ideology of living in the East but enjoying the fruits of the West is brought to light. The discussions the artists have in the playwright’s apartment are telling. Their creativity is being stifled, but it is dangerous to do anything. When you interfere with the lives of others, there is a price to pay and it may be freedom.

Copyright 2007 Marie Asner
Submitted: 3/1/07