Surviving the Big Smoke

The Lives of Others is such a good film about the stasi in GDR during the 80s. Ulrich Mühe is so convincing as the meticulous secret policeman spying on a playwrite and his wife. Apparently Mühe was once the subject of similar sureveillance himself as an actor living in East Germany. Another fantstastic performance is from Sebastian Koch who plays the playwriter under surveillance. He played the Nazi official in Black Book (another great film). The Lives of Others shows how oppressive regimes try and fail to stifle human expression and emotion, as do other recent films - Black Book and Pan's Labyrinth. They serve as a reminder that superpowers such as USA, UK and Iran continue to exert their regimes on the world with no regard for the real feelings of its citizens.