The Lives of Others

The West Lafayette (IN) Public Library, has one of the best global film collections you'll find. I was a fan of serious cinema, for sure, even before I came to Purdue, but the fact that there's a public library that allows you to borrow 5 DVD's a time, (for a week, i.e.) for free, makes one 'want' to watch all the movies on offer.
I've watched movies, both Global and American by the dozen after I became a member and I must say that the fun in watching a movie legally, in fine DVD quality print, at your own leisure, re-watching several times those parts that you liked, is quite a few times more than watching a movie on the net, fuming at the low stream rates and the poor picture quality.
Amongst English movies that I've watched recently, I liked 'No Country for Old Men' (knockout performance by Javier Bardem), The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (Every character here is grey, no completely good, no completely bad, though Eli Wallach, methinks, is literally quite ugly) , Pi (By Darren Aaronofsky, the guy who gave us the smashing, 'Requiem for a Dream' and whose style Anurag Kashyap has copied completely in 'No Smoking') and several others that I cannot recount immediately.
I've managed to see almost all of Scorcese's films, Kurosawa, (Rashomon, Yojimbo, Seven Samurai and Kagemusha, out of which the last one sucks like a newborn, while Rashomon impresses immensely), some of Kubrick's films and the Apu Trilogy (I liked the innocence of Pather Panchali, but Apur Sansar and Aparajito were turn offs, IMHO).
Coming to the topic of the post, after watching movies like 'Valentin', 'Children of Heaven' and 'Cinema Paradiso', I thought that I had watched the best that the medium could offer. I soon found out how wrong I was, when I watched this movie called 'The Lives of Others'
Set in last few years of East Germany's existence, this movie is essentially about 'Operation Laszlo', one of the many covert missions undertaken by the East German State Security Police (Stasi) to weed out potential enemies of the state by monitoring their personal and professional lives.
A engaging screenplay, superb direction by a debutant director (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck), brilliant performances by the lead cast, brilliant moments scattered throughout the movie in the form of subtle expressions (mainly by Muhe), a super ending, especially the last dialog in the context of the whole movie (this is not a thriller mind you) make this movie a must watch. And yes, I forgot to mention, that this movie also won the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2007.
A few things immediately came to my mind after watching this film. If the intension in making the film was depicting the horrors/lack of freedom of life in a totalitarian, oppressive state, then I am sure we can find such instances in so called progressive states too. Why, during the McCarthy witch hunt, there were files maintained on suspected communists, their phone conversations tapped and their lives were essentially under the FBI microscope, much like is shown in this movie based in communist East Germany.
I suspect though, that this isn't the case, because nowhere is there any sort of preaching/banner-raising. It is simply a story that is set against an unfortunate background and how the lives of people involved get affected.
I'm hoping though, that there'll be many more films from this guy Donnersmarck (Quite like Bismarck, really, this surname, makes you want to clap your heels as if you heard the word 'Achtung'), because if his first film is anything to go by, the ones to follow should definitely be worth waiting for.