Read our editors' picks for the movies and shows we're watching in March, including "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," Boss Level, and Zack Snyder's Justice League.
Check out the most anticipated movies and TV to stream in March, including Zack Snyder's Justice League, Godzilla vs. Kong, and more.
Related lists from IMDb editors
Related lists from IMDb users
Title: The Lives of Others (2006)
Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Martina Gedeck | ... | Christa-Maria Sieland | |
| Ulrich Mühe | ... | Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler | |
| Sebastian Koch | ... | Georg Dreyman | |
| Ulrich Tukur | ... | Oberstleutnant Anton Grubitz | |
 |
Thomas Thieme | ... | Minister Bruno Hempf |
|
|
Hans-Uwe Bauer | ... | Paul Hauser |
| Volkmar Kleinert | ... | Albert Jerska | |
| Matthias Brenner | ... | Karl Wallner | |
| Charly Hübner | ... | Udo | |
| Herbert Knaup | ... | Gregor Hessenstein | |
|
|
Bastian Trost | ... | Häftling 227 |
| Marie Gruber | ... | Frau Meineke | |
| Volker Michalowski | ... | Schriftexperte (as Zack Volker Michalowski) | |
| Werner Daehn | ... | Einsatzleiter in Uniform | |
| Martin Brambach | ... | Einsatzleiter Meyer | |
Gerd Wiesler is an officer with the Stasi, the East German secret police. The film begins in 1984 when Wiesler attends a play written by Georg Dreyman, who is considered by many to be the ultimate example of the loyal citizen. Wiesler has a gut feeling that Dreyman can't be as ideal as he seems, and believes surveillance is called for. The Minister of Culture agrees but only later does Wiesler learn that the Minister sees Dreyman as a rival and lusts after his partner Christa-Maria. The more time he spends listening in on them, the more he comes to care about them. The once rigid Stasi officer begins to intervene in their lives, in a positive way, protecting them whenever possible. Eventually, Wiesler's activities catch up to him and while there is no proof of wrongdoing, he finds himself in menial jobs - until the unbelievable happens. Written by garykmcd
East Berlin, November 1984. Five years before its downfall the GDR seeks to maintain its power with the help of a merciless system of control and observation. When Oberstleutnant Anton Grubitz puts loyal Stasi-Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler on to the famous writer Georg Dreymann and his girlfriend Christa Maria Sieland who is a famous actress herself, he expects career advancement for himself. For most important politicians are responsible for this "operative act".
What Wiesler did not expect: the intimate view on the world of the ones he's observing changes the snitch as well. Looking at "the life of the others" makes him aware of the beggarliness in his own life and enables access to a so far unknown world of love, free thinking and speaking he is hardly able to elude. But the system can't be stopped anymore and a dangerous game, which destroys the love of Christa Maria Sieland and Georg Dreymann and Wieslers present existence begins.
Until the fall of the wall each of them has paid a big price. After that a whole new world begins.
My personal opinion - though it doesn't count that much - is that this one a an absolute Must See. I can hardly remember such an intelligent and moving German movie especially not including the whole topic of GDR history and the dealing with it. I think this is the first German movie which shows this system as it used to be (which has been confirmed by several contemporary witnesses) and not turns it and its people into comedy though there have been several good ones, of course.