The Lives of Others

On the data. One film, and the people who made it had lived it. Ulrich Muhe, who plays the Stasi officer, was an East German actor who had been under surveillance himself. He read his own file after reunification; it ran to hundreds of pages, and he said in interviews that it named four of his fellow actors as informants, and his wife. She disputed it publicly and the argument went to court. He died the year after the film was released. The former Stasi headquarters, now a museum, refused permission to film there, reportedly because its director objected to the premise that a Stasi officer might develop a conscience. The production built what it needed instead. It won the Academy Award for best foreign language film, beating Pan's Labyrinth, which was the favourite. It was the first feature by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who was thirty-three. Historians have questioned whether any Stasi officer ever did what this one does. The director has acknowledged that he found no documented case.

On your progress. Checkmarks are saved on this device and are tied to permanent title IDs, not to list positions, so new episodes, titles, and whole franchises can be added later without disturbing anything you've already marked. Use Sync & backup to move progress to another device.