Center for European Studies presents: The Lives of Others

2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

The Lives of Others is set in 1984 East Berlin (East Germany).  It tells a story of a Stasi agent (the secret police) who is conducting surveillance on a famous writer and an actress and becomes increasingly absorbed by their lives.

Introduced by Karina von Tippelskirch, German Program, ​Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.

Anthony Lane, The New Yorker: "Es ist für mich"—"It’s for me." When you see the film, as you must, you will understand why the phrase is like a blessing. To have something bestowed on "me"—not on a tool of the state, not on a scapegoat or a sneak, but on me—is a sign that individual liberties have risen from the dead. You might think that The Lives of Others is aimed solely at modern Germans—at all the Wieslers, the Dreymans, and the weeping Christa-Marias. A movie this strong, however, is never parochial, nor is it period drama. 

Es ist für uns. It’s for us.

Sponsored by the Center for European Studies at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs

For information on accessibility, or to request accommodation, please contact Oana Zabava at (315) 443-9248 or oazabava@syr.edu.