The Lives of Others - Das Leben der Anderen

This weekend I met up with a co-worker of mine, Shabnam, and a friend of hers and saw The Lives of Others. I'd been wanting to see this film ever since Benjamin was talking it up one day at work. It's a German film that takes place during the early 80's in East Germany and centers around the Stasi - short for Staatssicherheit, as in the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit or Ministry of State Security - the secret police of the GDR. Stasi agent, Gerd Wiesler, is part of an operation that has playwright, Georg Dreyman, under surveillance. As Wiesler observes the lives of Dreyman and his lover, actress Christa-Maria Sieland, he becomes disenchanted with the Stasi system, its abuse of power, as its members destroy the lives of several Berlin artists. I'm not sure if you noticed this, but was there anyone this weekend not reading You-Know-Which-Book?