The Lives of Others - 2007

The East German secret police (Stasi) employed a network of 100,000 staff and 200,000 informants to spy on it's own citizens. This film shows the effects of this invasion of privacy on both parties. A very good movie worthy of the Academy Award it received for Best Foreign Language Film.

Set in 1980s East Berlin, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's debut feature provides an exquisitely nuanced portrait of life under the watchful eye of the state police. When a successful playwright and his actress companion become subjects of the Stasi's secret surveillance program, their friends, family -- and even those doing the watching -- find their lives forever changed.