The Lives of Others (2006)
In 1984 East Germany, Stasi Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler, code name HGW XX/7, is ordered to spy on the playwright Georg Dreyman, who had so far escaped state scrutiny due to his Communist views and international recognition. Wiesler and his team bug the apartment, set up surveillance equipment in an attic and begin reporting Dreyman’s activities. Wiesler learns that Dreyman has been put under surveillance at the request of the Minister of Culture, Bruno Hempf, who covets Dreyman’s girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria Sieland. After an intervention by Wiesler leads to Dreyman’s discovering Sieland’s relationship with Hempf, he implores her not to meet him again. Sieland flees to a nearby bar where Wiesler, posing as a fan, urges her to be true to herself. She returns home and reconciles with Dreyman.
At Dreyman’s birthday party, his friend Albert Jerska, a blacklisted theatrical director, gives him sheet music for Sonate vom Guten Menschen. Shortly afterwards, Jerska hangs himself. A grieving Dreyman decides to publish an anonymous article in Der Spiegel, a prominent West German newsweekly. Dreyman’s article accuses the state of concealing the country’s elevated suicide rates. When Dreyman and his friends feign a defection attempt to determine whether or not his flat is bugged, a now sympathetic Wiesler does not alert the border guards or his superior Lt. Col. Anton Grubitz and the conspirators believe they are safe. Since all East German typewriters are registered and identifiable, an editor of Der Spiegel smuggles Dreyman a miniature typewriter with a red ribbon. Dreyman hides the typewriter under a floorboard of his apartment but is seen by Sieland.
Date of download: 2015-11-11T17:22:34+00:00
Cast:  Ulrich MüheHauptmann Gerd Wiesler  Martina GedeckChrista-Maria Sieland  Sebastian KochGeorg Dreyman  Ulrich TukurOberstleutnant Anton Grubitz  Thomas ThiemeMinister Bruno Hempf |
In 1984 East Germany, Stasi Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler, code name HGW XX/7, is ordered to spy on the playwright Georg Dreyman, who had so far escaped state scrutiny due to his Communist views and international recognition. Wiesler and his team bug the apartment, set up surveillance equipment in an attic and begin reporting Dreyman’s activities. Wiesler learns that Dreyman has been put under surveillance at the request of the Minister of Culture, Bruno Hempf, who covets Dreyman’s girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria Sieland. After an intervention by Wiesler leads to Dreyman’s discovering Sieland’s relationship with Hempf, he implores her not to meet him again. Sieland flees to a nearby bar where Wiesler, posing as a fan, urges her to be true to herself. She returns home and reconciles with Dreyman.
At Dreyman’s birthday party, his friend Albert Jerska, a blacklisted theatrical director, gives him sheet music for Sonate vom Guten Menschen. Shortly afterwards, Jerska hangs himself. A grieving Dreyman decides to publish an anonymous article in Der Spiegel, a prominent West German newsweekly. Dreyman’s article accuses the state of concealing the country’s elevated suicide rates. When Dreyman and his friends feign a defection attempt to determine whether or not his flat is bugged, a now sympathetic Wiesler does not alert the border guards or his superior Lt. Col. Anton Grubitz and the conspirators believe they are safe. Since all East German typewriters are registered and identifiable, an editor of Der Spiegel smuggles Dreyman a miniature typewriter with a red ribbon. Dreyman hides the typewriter under a floorboard of his apartment but is seen by Sieland.
