Of all the former Warsaw Pact nations, East Germany had the unfortunate distinction of having one of the most paranoid and repressive regimes. The secret police–the Stasi–had countless civilians under electronic surveillance and it recruited hundreds of thousands of people to inform on their co-workers, neighbors, and even family. This understated but compelling thriller, set in East Germany during the mid-80s, addresses the toll such constant scrutiny exacts on both the watchers and the watched.
Wiesler is a humorless Stasi agent who is fully committed to his work as a “sword and shield” of the state. He is assigned to surveil Georg Dreyman, a writer who appears to be a faithful Party servant but nonetheless is regarded with suspicion by some officials. Wiesler begins his assignment full of grim determination to find evidence of seditious behavior on the part of Dreyman, but Wiesler’s constant absorption in the life of his subject begins to affect him in ways he does not anticipate.
The film works as a straight thriller, but it also serves as an allegory for the power of the artist to resist tyranny and ultimately redeem at least a few of tyranny’s collaborators. At a time when Americans demonstrate a disquieting acceptance of domestic surveillance, this film demonstrates that a culture of observation makes all of us less free.
