The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others opened at Vinegar Hill Theatre last Friday and is sure to continue to show there for the next few weeks.

This is the debut feature length film from German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, and the winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Set in East Germany in 1984, The Lives of Others captures the atmosphere of tension in the East German government near the end of the Cold War. The film revolves around the loyal, stone-faced Stasi agent Capt. Wiesler as he bugs an apartment shared by a prominent playwright and his actress girlfriend - two people about whom the Party harbors suspicions.

From A.O. Scott's February 9th review in the New York Times:

There is a bracing, old-fashioned quality to Mr. von Donnersmarck’s film, which supplies us with good guys to root for and villains to despise. But it also shows, with excruciating precision, the cruelty with which a totalitarian state can exploit the weakness and confusion of its citizens. And even as they are, to some extent, enacting a morality play, the actors also seem like real, vulnerable people forced into impossible choices.

Click here to read the full review.

Showtimes for the film are as follows:
Tuesday, March 20 at 4:00 and 9:35 only,
otherwise Daily at 4:10, 7:00, 9:35 plus
Saturday and Sunday at 1:20.follows: