---
title: "The Lives of Others"
year: 2006
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-lives-of-others"
fi1m_id: "the-lives-of-others"
imdb_id: "tt0405094"
tmdb_id: 582
wikidata_id: "Q153882"
fi1m_score: 84
critics_score: 74
critics_reviews: 6
published: "2026-09-15"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:52.724500+00:00"
region: "HU"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Lives of Others (2006)

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck · 2h 17m · NMHH 16 · Drama, Thriller

## Identity

The Lives of Others

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-lives-of-others
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-lives-of-others
- **IMDb ID:** tt0405094
- **TMDB ID:** 582
- **Wikidata ID:** Q153882
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/582, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q153882

**Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 74 from 6 reviews

*In a sentence:* A secret policeman takes an unhealthy interest in other people, which is also his job

> Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s surveillance thriller is tense, humane and carried by Ulrich Mühe’s patient performance. Its faith in personal goodness occasionally makes a brutal political system look too easily understood, but we recommend it warmly.

## Synopsis

In East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall, secret police officer Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) is assigned to monitor playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch). Dreyman’s girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), also comes under scrutiny as their private lives become the subject of state surveillance. Wiesler listens for evidence against the people he watches, while the couple must live with the possibility that their words and relationships can be used against them. Written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the film follows the officer and those under his watch through a society where private life is a matter of state interest.

## Review

*The Lives of Others* makes a gripping thriller out of surveillance without allowing us to forget who has the power. In East Germany, Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler is assigned to watch the playwright Georg Dreyman, and the intrusion extends to Dreyman’s actress girlfriend, Christa-Maria Sieland. We recommend it warmly, chiefly for Ulrich Mühe, whose performance makes the simple business of listening difficult to watch. Writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck asks how closely someone can attend to other people’s lives while continuing to treat them as material for an investigation.

Mühe is careful about how much he lets us read in Wiesler. He makes us study a face that seems determined to disclose as little as possible, giving each suggestion of doubt unusual force. We were frightened by his concentration: the listening itself feels invasive, even before we consider what might be done with the information. Donnersmarck understands that the prospect of being understood by the wrong person can be enough to sustain a scene.

Sebastian Koch’s Dreyman and Martina Gedeck’s Sieland have the harder task of making the people under scrutiny feel like more than a case worth caring about. Koch gives the playwright enough ease to prevent him becoming a ready-made emblem of resistance. Gedeck is particularly good at making vulnerability feel uncomfortable rather than inviting our sympathy on cue. Their relationship gives the surveillance something personal to damage, though Donnersmarck is occasionally too eager to arrange our sympathies in advance. We are rarely left uncertain about where decency lies.

Hagen Bogdanski’s cinematography keeps the colours subdued, and that suits a film in which people have reasons not to draw attention to themselves. Silke Buhr’s production design makes this a drab place to live, without making every image equally dull. The restraint keeps our attention on the people under scrutiny and on the man studying them. It also makes the surveillance feel like ordinary work, which is more disturbing than presenting it as an exceptional act of wickedness.

Patricia Rommel’s editing keeps the act of watching and the lives being watched clearly connected. We can understand the danger without having to stop and reconstruct who knows what, an important achievement in a thriller about information. At 137 minutes, though, the film sometimes restates what an earlier exchange has already made clear. The music by Gabriel Yared and Stéphane Moucha can be similarly insistent, steering us towards a feeling Mühe has already earned without help. Neither problem undoes the tension, but both suggest a little less confidence in the audience than the performances deserve.

The larger reservation concerns Donnersmarck’s faith in the possibility of personal goodness inside the secret police. His screenplay gives that possibility persuasive human detail, but the moral choices can look tidier than the circumstances should allow. This is a familiar danger in political thrillers: one person’s conscience can become an easier subject than the power exercised over everyone else. We do not need a history lesson, but we do need the film to resist making its central question too comfortable. Give it an uninterrupted evening; the faces need as much attention as the conversations.

*Fi1m score 84, published 15 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics respond warmly to The Lives of Others, praising its combination of surveillance thriller and moral drama. The strongest notices find the screenplay precise and absorbing, with suspense growing from difficult questions about compassion and conduct under oppression. Praise also clusters around the central performances, controlled direction and austere visual treatment of East German life. For its admirers, the film makes the workings of surveillance chillingly clear without neglecting the people caught up in them.

The spread is wide, however, and the disagreements concern emotional credibility as much as storytelling. Sight and Sound admires the performances but questions the plausibility of the central agent’s transformation. Paste finds a strong lead performance undermined by repetition and over-explanation. Slant Magazine offers the sharpest dissent: it acknowledges technical skill but sees a manipulative, emotionally thin account that simplifies East German history, rejecting the humane complexity that more favourable reviews find persuasive.

## Straight answers

**Is The Lives of Others worth watching?**

*The Lives of Others* is worth watching for anyone who wants a patient, humane thriller about surveillance in East Germany, and we scored it 84. Ulrich Mühe's performance as the Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler is the chief reason to see it. Our reservation is that the film's faith in personal goodness makes a brutal system look tidier than it should.

**How long is The Lives of Others, and what is it rated?**

*The Lives of Others* runs 2h 17m and is rated 16 by the NMHH in Hungary. It is a drama and thriller film.

**Where can I watch The Lives of Others in Hungary?**

*The Lives of Others* is not on any streaming or rental service in Hungary at the moment. It is available in 9 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is The Lives of Others, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Lives of Others* carries a UK 15 certificate, and its unease comes from listening rather than from violence. The film is frightening in a quiet way: a secret policeman's concentration on the people he watches is what disturbs, not anything shown on screen. It is not for children, but older teenagers used to slow-burning drama should manage it.

**How does The Lives of Others compare to The Conversation?**

*The Lives of Others* and [*The Conversation*](https://film.one/film/the-conversation) are both surveillance thrillers in which listening closely becomes a reason to lose sleep, but they differ in what the listener is. Coppola's film is about a lonely professional; Donnersmarck's is about a state official whose employer holds the power. The earlier film is the tighter of the two, and we recommend it without hesitation; the later one is longer, warmer and more inclined to arrange our sympathies in advance.

**What should I watch after The Lives of Others?**

After *The Lives of Others*, try [*The Conversation*](https://film.one/film/the-conversation) (1974, Fi1m 92): Another surveillance thriller in which listening closely becomes a reason to lose sleep. Then [*The Secret in Their Eyes*](https://film.one/film/the-secret-in-their-eyes) (2009, Fi1m 78): An investigation entangles private longing with the failures of public justice; and [*A Separation*](https://film.one/film/a-separation) (2011, Fi1m 93): Private loyalties become painfully difficult to separate from questions of responsibility and blame.

### Reviews we read (12)

- **Radio Times**, Alan Jones (5/5): The critic hails it as a riveting masterpiece and meticulous portrait of compassion amid oppression, intelligently written and sensitively directed. Exceptional performances and dynamic storytelling create nuanced tension around rediscovering humanity under surveillance. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-aisnqr/the-lives-of-others/)
- **Empire**, Alan Morrison (90/100, inferred): The critic hails it as European filmmaking at its finest and a major work of German cinema's renaissance. They single out the emotional precision of the screenplay and the perfect balance between thriller and drama, along with the memorable central performances. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/lives-others-review/)
- **Financial Times**, Nigel Andrews (4/5): The immaculately made drama-thriller pits a free-thinking playwright against a ruthless Stasi officer in surveillance, resulting in an absorbing and cleverly structured story. It features austerity colours and witty characterisation even in small roles. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/444d00dc-e844-11db-b2c3-000b5df10621)
- **Slant Magazine**, Fernando F. Croce (30/100, inferred): The critic views the film as a tepid, bloodless reduction of East German history that oversimplifies social struggles with a trite uplift at the end. He praises the director's technical facility but faults the manipulative narrative and lack of genuine emotional depth. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-lives-of-others/)
- **Screen Daily**: The review describes a remarkably confident debut that is a deft, gripping Communist-era drama with breakout potential, anchored by assured writing and confident direction. It highlights strong lead performances and the drab world as a character, while suggesting minor trims. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/features/the-lives-of-others-das-leben-der-anderen/4028204.article)
- **Sight and Sound**, Geoffrey Macnab: The critic finds the film a remarkably assured debut that chillingly details Stasi methods and the moral awakening of its central agent, with strong performances and a mature vision of the GDR era. Some reservations are noted about the plausibility of the agent's transformation and a slightly maudlin ending. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/3814)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw: The film is a fierce and gloomy drama indicting the brutalities of the Stasi secret police in East Germany. It follows a Stasi officer whose surveillance of a playwright and his actress girlfriend leads him to question the regime and act to protect them. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/apr/13/worldcinema.drama)
- **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane: The debut feature is a powerful drama about surveillance and the absence of justice in East Germany, centered on a Stasi agent's intrusion into a playwright's life. It features an ending of overwhelming simplicity and force. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/02/12/guilty-parties)
- **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott: The film is a suspenseful, ethically exacting drama that poses difficult questions about goodness and moral action under totalitarianism. It illuminates the psychology of the GDR's secret police with visual and narrative rigor. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/09/movies/09live.html)
- **Time Out**, Geoff Andrew: The review calls it a remarkably assured and gripping political thriller that paints a dark picture of life under the East German regime through expert surveillance and moral questioning. It praises the lucid script, atmospheric camerawork and superb performances while noting a slightly distended ending. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-lives-of-others-1)
- **Eye for Film**, Anton Bitel (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as an astonishing debut that redresses the balance against Ostalgie by depicting the painful realities of Stasi surveillance in 1980s East Germany. They single out the meticulous research, authentic locations, superb performances especially from Ulrich Mühe, and nuanced screenplay for praise. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-lives-of-others-film-review-by-anton-bitel)
- **Paste**, Robert Davis (50/100, inferred): The film is a cleverly constructed story about an East German spy whose surveillance mission leads him to question his role, anchored by a strong central performance. However, it suffers from redundancy, over-explained plot twists, and clumsiness that make it intermittently engaging but largely vacuous. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/florian-henckel-von-donnersmarck/foreign-your-consideration)

## Details

- **Director:** Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
- **Director:** Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
- **Screenplay:** Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
- **Cinematography:** Hagen Bogdanski
- **Editor:** Patricia Rommel
- **Music:** Gabriel Yared, Stéphane Moucha
- **Production design:** Silke Buhr
- **Costume design:** Gabriele Binder
- **Producer:** Max Wiedemann, Quirin Berg
- **Cast:** Martina Gedeck as Christa-Maria Sieland; Ulrich Mühe as Gerd Wiesler; Sebastian Koch as Georg Dreyman; Ulrich Tukur as Anton Grubitz; Thomas Thieme as Bruno Hempf; Hans-Uwe Bauer as Paul Hauser; Volkmar Kleinert as Albert Jerska; Matthias Brenner as Karl Wallner
- **Runtime:** 2h 17m
- **Certificate (NMHH):** 16
- **Release (Hungary):** 22 February 2007
- **Genres:** Drama, Thriller
- **Budget:** $2 million
- **Box office:** $78 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3_iLOp6IhM

## Where to watch in Hungary

Not streaming, renting or buying in Hungary at the last check.

Also available in: AT, BE, CA, CH, DE, FR, JP, NL, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2007: Best International Feature Film (won)
- Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film 2007: Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film (won)
- International Submission to the Academy Awards 2007: International Submission to the Academy Awards (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Actor 2006: European Film Award for Best Actor (won)
- European Film Award for Best Actress 2006: European Film Award for Best Actress (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Composer 2006: European Film Award for Best Composer (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Director 2006: European Film Award for Best Director (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Film 2006: European Film Award for Best Film (won)
- European Film Award for Best Screenwriter 2006: European Film Award for Best Screenwriter (won)

## If you liked this

- *The Conversation* (1974), Fi1m 92: Another surveillance thriller in which listening closely becomes a reason to lose sleep. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-conversation.md)
- *Barbara* (2012): A quieter East German drama, equally alert to the dangers of trusting someone.
- *The Secret in Their Eyes* (2009), Fi1m 78: An investigation entangles private longing with the failures of public justice. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-secret-in-their-eyes.md)
- *A Separation* (2011), Fi1m 93: Private loyalties become painfully difficult to separate from questions of responsibility and blame. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-separation.md)
- *The Conformist* (1970), Fi1m 87: Political obedience examined through a man whose need to belong makes him dangerous. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-conformist.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-lives-of-others