Das Leben der Anderen or The Lives of Others is a German movie about the totalitarian state of East Germany.
A playwright in East Berlin is being spied upon by the Stasi ostensibly for Western sympathies but really because a Minister is attracted to the playwright’s girlfriend. As the spying continues, the agent gets more sympathetic to the playwright and his girlfriend. Meanwhile, the playwright decides to write an article in the West German press about the high suicide rates in East Germany.
Overall, it’s a good movie which presents the main characters (playwright, his girlfriend and the stasi agent) as very human. It also shows the detailed spying that the East German state did on its citizens.
I rate the movie 9/10.
