“The Lives of Others “is a film released on 23rd March 2006, written and directed by Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck. Having been brought up in a divided Germany, East and West Germany, Donnersmarck relates well with this film and its authenticity. Importantly, the film bases its plot on the aftermath of the cold war, a significant period in Germany’s history characterized by various forms of discrimination. Germany’s split into different occupation zones with neighbouring countries supporting different factions for individual benefits, the film presents a divided country and comprehensively details cultures in conflict.
Plot-wise, the film explains the aftermath of Nazi Germany’s defeat by exploring various consequences that the two factions, East and West Germany, went through in their bid to control one another. The film explores control and management tactics by socialists and capitalists and the resulting consequences to the public. In addition, the film addresses the need to reconstruct trust, harmony and integration of views and practices from historical, political and economic divides.
Content-wise, the film is explained in German, giving it contextual relevance to the primary audience. It rhymes with the political context of Nazi Germany during the cold war and the socio-economic patterns at the time. By presenting Wiesler as a Stasi Officer and his role of spying on Georg Dreyman, a playwright, it explains the political environment in Germany during the era of the cold war. Theme wise, true human nature and freedom of conscience are brought out as necessities of a productive and morally upright society. The group’s presentation on the content and dialogues aspects was to the point and elaborates on the literary aspects for content and comprehension.
“The lives of others” is linear in that the audience understands each section and subsection in real-time. The lighting and camera choices are surrealistic and the scenes presentation augments the prose of the storyline. Editing and sound effects during the interrogation scene create a situation of anguish, fear and duress to the suspect who demanded a little sleep to get him together. Lighting and background music supplement the fundamental meaning of the film whereby dull bluish and orange tints express scenes of torture, rage and traumatic incidences. Deeply-voiced tracks and heart-throbbing sound effects supplement the facial makeups and emotional swings that develop the sequential integration of diverse socio-political and economic divides during the time.
The group’s film screening manifests the content and the technical integration of the social and political diversities of divided Nazi Germany. Integrating the social aspects of welfare dictatorship by East Germans with parliamentary democracy by West Germans is manifested in the exchange of words and views about leadership and the welfare of the political divides. For example, the Eastern faction is presented as a calm section from their warm greetings and dialogues compared to the Western faction characterized by rage, emotional turmoil and discriminative grief directed towards the leadership. In addition, the interrogation scene manifests the dictatorial aspects combined with the biased and discriminative view on innocence and true human nature at times of fear, grief and disillusion in diverse political and social contexts.
The group’s presentation brings forth a unique definition of the lives of others on a conceptual and contextual basis. Literature manifests its role in addressing the true nature of human beings concerning different socio-economic and political platforms, and this film tells it all.