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We gave away 2 passes to the theatre premier of The Lives of Others in Bangalore last week. The winner was selected from those who had added the movie to their Watch List.

Obedullah Khan of the Dodsal Corporation, the company that operates Pizza Hut  and KFC in India, was the lucky winner. Going by the ring-tone of his mobile phone (the famous Mission Impossible theme tune), we are sure he would have enjoyed the political surveillance drama set in East Berlin just before the Wall fell.

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 as a high-profile couple is bugged. 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 changed too.

The movie won the 2007 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and a number of other awards. It has been critically aclaimed the world over.

The movie released on the Friday, April 4 in Bangalore at Inox Garuda Mall, Fun Sigma Mall and Fame Lido. It is also playing in Mumbai at Inox NPT and Metro Adlabs. It will be screened in other cities shortly. And DVDs will be out in a couple of months and will be avilable on Catchflix.com. You must watch it!
 
Synopsis

East Berlin, November 1984. Five years before its downfall, the former East-German government (DDR) ensured its claim to power with a ruthless system of control and surveillance.

Party-loyalist Captain Gerd Wiesler hopes to boost his career when given the job of collecting evidence against the playwright Georg Dreyman and his girlfriend, the celebrated theater actress Christa-Maria Sieland. After all, the “operation” is backed by the highest political circles. What he didn’t anticipate, however, was that submerging oneself into the world of the target also changes the surveillance agent.

The immersion in The Lives of Others – in love, literature, free thinking and speech – makes Wiesler acutely aware of the meagerness of his own existence and opens to him a completely new way of life which he has ever more trouble resisting. But the system, once started, cannot be stopped. A dangerous game has begun…

In contrast to light-hearted films about East Germany like “Good Bye Lenin!” and “Sun Alley”, The Lives of Others ventures off the beaten track and tells its story without compromise and with great inner truthfulness. A story from the heart of the East-German regime, it is an intensely gripping thriller and moving love story.

Set in 1980s East Berlin, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s debut feature (which earned the 2007 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film) provides an exquisitely nuanced portrait of life under the watchful eye of the state police as a high-profile couple is bugged. 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 changed too.

Read more about the movie: http://www.thelivesofothers.in