‘The Life of Others’ – a film
1 This début film is the result of eight years’ work by the director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, and has gained many awards at home and abroad, including a Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2007. It tells the story of a plot by the East German secret police – the Stasi* – to discredit a playwright, ending in both the death of his lover and the end of his career. Initially the playwright refuses to take a principled stand against the régime, preferring to keep his mouth shut so that he can continue to work. Later, by the time he changes his mind, his lover has already become involved in informing on him to a Stasi agent.
2 Putting the work of the Stasi at the centre of its plot The Life Of Others reveals the workings of the dictatorship in a system that is both corrupt and corrupting. The film is a chilling and depressing portrayal of how fear and manipulation were used by the Stasi to control the people of East Germany and has focused public attention on the dark truth about the East German police state. "The Life of Others" is a serious work of art, and it is also a cautionary tale. It tells us what happens to the quality of human life in a surveillance state.
3 ‘Das Leben der Anderen’ has been widely praised for offering a fresh view of the past after a string of nostalgic comedies about life in the former GDR in recent years. It shows the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) in a much grimmer light than films such as Sonnenallee and Goodbye, Lenin! which tended to bathe East Germany in a warm glow of sentimentality. German’s highly respected and widely read weekly newspaper Die Zeit called it "the best film about the GDR since reunification"** while Rezension.de, the German online magazine for film reviews, considers it was ‘high time’ a film appeared as an antidote to what it describes as the overdose of nostalgic films ("die Ostalgie-Überdosis") which paint a rosy picture of the former GDR.
4 The film has also led to something of a reaction against the way that East Germany has been portrayed in popular culture. Alongside those sentimental comedies, there have been light-hearted TV shows that dwelt lovingly on the quaint fashions of East Germany and the supposed joys of driving the boxy Trabant cars of the communist era. Film critics and political commentators in Germany see the film as evidence that nostalgia for the communist era is finally being replaced by a more realistic view.
5 One real-life case also dominated the German media after making headlines in Germany after an actor in the film alleged in an accompanying book that his former wife was a real-life Stasi informer.
6 Over the last 15 years or so hundreds of thousands of people have been to the reading room at the Berlin office where people can view their Stasi files, and study lengthy and detailed handwritten reports and typed-up records of their activities between the mid 1940s and the later 1980s. This is where many have found out for the first time that their friends, neighbours or even family members were secret police informers.
*The Stasi – the secret police of the former East Germany – in full the Staatssicherheitsministerium, the ministry department for national or state security
**Die Zeit 23.03.06
The Berlin Wall fell in November 1989 after nearly 3 decades of dividing east and west Berlin.
NB The word Ostalgie – meaning nostalgia for the former "Ost" (East) – has been used to describe a phenomenon that has also spawned TV shows and created a market for souvenirs ranging from T-shirts to "communist" champagne.