DVD extras: The making of 'The lives of others' ; feature audio commentary ; deleted scenes with audio commentary.

DVD extras: The making of 'The lives of others' ; feature audio commentary ; deleted scenes with audio commentary.

DVD extras: The making of 'The lives of others' ; feature audio commentary ; deleted scenes with audio commentary.

Classification: MA 15+ (Not suitable for people under 15. Under 15s must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian). Consumer Advice: Strong sexual references ; OFLC Australia.

Written & directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Mühe, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur.

"A potent narrative about the transformative effect of involvement in other people's stories, 'The Lives Of Others' turns its own story into a python-tight embrace of nuanced tension and emotional connection. It convincingly demonstrates that when done right, moral and political quandaries can be the most intensely dramatic dilemmas of all. Director Von Donnersmarck has set his film in the East Germany of 1984, five years before the Berlin Wall collapsed. It was a time when the terrifying Stasi, the secret police, made it their business to use an extensive network of spies and surveillance to know every secret thing about their citizens. Unlike other German films, most notably 2004's landmark 'Goodbye, Lenin', nostalgia is far from Von Donnersmarck's thoughts. Instead this is an inside look at how a surveillance society, set up to discover and prey upon human weakness, has the ability to make everyone a potential suspect and destroy everything it touches.

The Lives of Others' does all this beautifully, but it is too well-acted a film, too meticulously plotted and carefully directed, to be satisfied with that alone. It's also finally too smart to be content with telling anything like a familiar story. Instead it places its key characters in high-stakes predicaments where what they are forced to wager is their talent, their very lives, even their souls. Introduced first is Stasi Capt. Gerd Wiesler (immaculately played by Ulrich Muhe), someone we recognize, or think we do, as one of the worst of the worst, a soulless servant of the state shown both interrogating an overmatched prisoner and passing on his manipulative techniques to the next generation of secret police. Bruno Hempf, a high-ranking powerful minister with a wandering eye, and used to exploiting his position to eliminate rivals in politics or love, takes a fancy to Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), a beautiful, popular and very attractive actress.

She is living with one of the country's most popular - and loyal - playwrights, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch). However, the couple's apparently safe little world is about to be turned upside down, when Hempf puts Wiesler - the Zen master of surveillance techniques, a man who wouldn't hesitate to wiretap his own mother - on the job. With Wiesler dispassionately listening in, we get to know the playwright and his actress better, get to see their worries about being able to do meaningful work in a restrictive society. When you wiretap as conscientiously as Wiesler, you learn all sorts of things, perhaps even things you weren't supposed to know. He gathers information that hints at unsuspected motives behind the wiretapping. He also comes to increasingly empathize with the couple he spends so much time eavesdropping on, leading to complex and shattering results.

As 'The Lives of Others' intricate plot unfolds and the acting takes hold in the most vivid way, as the line between survival and self-destruction becomes hard to see, the story's protagonists play increasingly dangerous double and triple games with each other. When the cracks begin to show, Wiesler's loneliness grows, and the hollowness inside his heart practically explodes. His journey toward self-awareness is fascinating, inspiring, even empowering." --Hopscotch.

Rating: MA 15+ restricted - Strong sexual references.

Originally released Weidemann & Berg Productions, 2006.

DVD 9, PAL, Region 4, Dolby digital 5.1surround, aspect ratio 2.35:1anamorphic.

In German with English subtitles.

Winner, Oscar (Academy Awards), 2007: Best Foreign Language Film of the Year.