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You can stream The Lives of Others on: The Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Amazon Store and Fandango at Home

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The Lives of Others

2006, Movie, 2h 17min

Set in East Berlin in the early 1980s, this acclaimed debut feature from Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck focuses on GDR’s pervasive and chilling surveillance state. The successful dramatist Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) and his longtime companion Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), a popular actress, are big intellectual stars in the socialist state, though in private they’re not always loyal to the party line. Secret service agent Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) is instructed to observe the couple. What begins as a routine surveillance operation motivated by Cold War politics soon becomes an obsession fueled by personal desires.

"The Lives of Others" — thriller and drama movie produced in Germany and France and released in 2006. It has a very high rating on IMDb: 8.4 stars out of 10. It is a feature-length film with a runtime of 2h 17min. "The Lives of Others" is currently available to stream on The Criterion Channel and for rent and to buy on Apple TV, Amazon Store and Fandango at Home. Click on a playlink to watch it now!

Country: Germany,France

Director:

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Cast:

Reviews

Critic Roger Ebert

rated

...a powerful but quiet film, constructed of hidden thoughts and secret desires.

Read full review at Roger Ebert

Critic Alan Morrison

rated

...a moving, enlightening tale of recent times.

Read full review at Empire

Critic Noel Murray

rated

'The Lives Of Others' perseveres, thanks to the performances of the heartbreakingly stoic Mühe and the problematically heroic Koch...

Read full review at The A.V. Club

Critic Josh Rosenblatt

rated

...[Mühe] is brilliant here, capturing each minuscule step in his character’s subtly growing recognition of the human potential for joy and emotional freedom...

Read full review at The Austin Chronicle

Kasper Løvborg

rated

Donnersmarck dabbled about with this flop before proceeding to make his masterpiece 'The Tourist'. Hold on...

4 years ago

Critic Frederik Asschenfeldt Vandrup

rated

...uforudsigeligheden er en stor styrke i en fortælling, der snildt kunne have lagt sig stilsikkert, men uopfindsomt op af de utallige forgængere i spiongenren.

Read full review at Cinemazone

Frequently asked questions

What is The Lives of Others about? Toggle content

In 1984, East Germany, a Stasi agent named Gerd Wiesler is tasked with spying on the famous playwright Georg Dreyman and his actress girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland. As Wiesler becomes more and more absorbed in their lives, he begins to question his own loyalty to the state and ultimately decides to protect them from harm, even at the cost of his own career. Meanwhile, tensions rise as Dreyman writes an article accusing the government of concealing high suicide rates, and Sieland is blackmailed into revealing Dreyman's authorship. In a tragic turn of events, Sieland is killed in a car accident while fleeing from the Stasi. The film ends with Wiesler being demoted to a dead-end assignment and Mikhail Gorbachev being elected leader of the Soviet Union, signaling the beginning of the end for East Germany's communist regime.