With a foreword by John le Carre. 1984. East Germany. Captain Gerd Wiesler, a loyal member of the secret police, is assigned to spy on the playwright Georg Dreyman. The flat is bugged, & Wiesler begins to listen in to the daily
- & nightly -activities of the playwright & his actress-girlfriend. But when he discovers that the surveillance has been instigated by the Minister of Culture`s desire for Dreyman`s girlfriend, rather than the playwright`s political views, Wiesler begins to question his own loyalties. As he continues to listen in, he finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed in the couple`s lives, & the gap between his professional duty & personal integrity starts to widen. This hugely influential film by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, whose screenplay is published in English for the first time, is as relevant
- or even more so
- now, in the wake of Edward Snowden & the Wiki Leaks revelations, as it was when it won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Further contents: Introduction by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; ` Appassionata: The Idea for the Film`, by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck`; an essay by Sebastian Koch (` Georg Dreyman`); an interview with Ulrich Muhe, by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; ` Wiesler`s Change of Heart`, an essay by Manfred Wilke; full film cast & crew credits Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the writer & director of The Lives of Others, was born in Cologne in 1973 & grew up in New York City, Brussels, Frankfurt & West Berlin. He studied Russian Literature in Leningrad before obtaining an MA from Oxford & a Diploma in Film Direction from the University of Film & Television in Munich.