The Lives of Others, A movie to watch

I am not sure if it is because of the political and social situation in my home or it's because of my keen interest on humans and their behaviour that I loved this movie a lot. Whatever it is, it will remain even in the darkest corners of my mind forever.


The movie is about a Stasi (East Germany intelligence service) officer who is missioned to watch a liberal writer, to see how he thinks. The reason behind it is generally common: You have to think the way we do or you will be against us.

The story happens 5 years before the Berlin wall collapsed in 1989. Yes 1989 not hundreds of years ago but just 20 years ago. Eastern Eaurope is still having problems.

It doesn't matter whether you are a muslim, a christian or an African. If your government is dictator, the result will be the same. Those who think different than the state are accused of being the mercenaries of the enemies. They have to be punished. They will be shorne of their basic human rights.

In a Musim country, you will be accused of fighting against Islam. In Africa, you will be destroying the tribes traditions and in Russia, you can be the one who is against the beautiful communism which has promised to bring equity to followers but has failed so far.

But dictators need a reason to kill you, ha?

What is obvious is that they cannot kill all. They always try to spread fear and terror amongst the opposition. They will assassin and torture them. In the last century, they started developing white torture.

This is a psychological way to break down the humans in front of them. It's clean and leaves no traces of torture. It threatens all you have. It demolishes your mind, makes you tired, restless and lonely. You can be isolated from any other human being except your interogator. And in the end you will confess to your immoral behaviours or your change of attitude in politics, as if you've never believed in them.

Your interogator will be your best friend and your worst enemy. But that's not my point. What I loved in this movie is the fact that some humans can be good even in the wrong place, provided that they haven't murdered their conscience and buried their dignity.

We humans can live together peacefully but we have to learn to respect each other's ideas. We need to learn to accept criticizm. We should always look for the truth and accept it even if it is against us.

That's the only way we can call ourselves HUMAN.