The Lives of Others won’t blow you away. It is not a movie of epic proportions, meant to redefine cinema viewing for our time. Dialogues are kept at a bare minimum, and the entire landscape is drenched in a sombre grey and beige. There are no pretty people here, and smiles are few and far between on their etched faces. Yet, The Lives of Others won an Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film. Once you leave the theatre, you’ll realise why.

Director Donnersmarck does not make any emotion or incident large or exaggerated. Set in East Germany, the story chases 5 characters through the tyranny of the State Security (Stasi) behind the Iron Curtain and its end after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Hauptmann (captain) Gerd Weisler (Muehe) is a dangerous Stasi interrogator, who prefers to use silent torment over force to extract information. After one of his higher-ups begins lusting for an actress Christa-Maria (Gedeck), Weisler is put in charge of tapping and surveillance of the actress’ apartment, which she shares with rebel writer Georg Dreyman (Koch). Weisler must gather proof that Dreyman is anti-political at least enough to get him incarcerated. But as he listens to every conversation inside the couples apartment, Weisler begins to value human life and relationships and his hard exterior begins to thaw.

Nevertheless, the DDR leadership of East Germany has powerful methods of persuasion, and Weisler – the inside man – must try to save the couple despite the odds. Post Holocaust divided Germany is not well-explored, and Donnersmarck manages to bring out the horror and utter despair of his characters without resorting to blood. His simplicity, even in choosing the blandest colour schemes and the most basic words, brings out the message undiluted - that the best of men get lost in bureaucracy and dictatorship. The Lives of Others is a collector’s item.