3. Das Leben Der Anderen (The Lives Of Others)
Year 2006,
Director Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck,
Starring Ulrich Muhe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur. Set in East Germany, the section of the country that was run as a Soviet puppet state throughout the Cold War, The Lives Of Others was a rightful winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, earning $77 million on a $2 million budget with its story of disillusionment and domestic espionage. Focusing on Wiesler, a Stasi officer, the story sees him assigned to the surveillance of a renowned playwright and his girlfriend under false pretenses, and sees him conflicted between his duty and his humanity, reluctant to see the lives of his subjects destroyed to satisfy the personal whims of his superiors. Though Ulrich Muhe died shortly after the films release, his sympathetic portrayal of Wiesler in the unforgiving world of East Germany will live long in the memory, as German cinema becomes less and less afraid to delve into the less savoury aspects of the countrys history.