New Look at One’s Own History: Von Donnersmarck’s “The Lives of Others” in Light of Socio-Historical Considerations

Ewa Fiuk

Abstract

The Lives of Others is an account-settling film, which is a very popular trend in contemporary German cinema. Looking at the history of the German Democratic Republic from the perspective of the regime-suppressed individual who has a guilty conscience is one of the distinctive features of alike German productions. Von Donnersmarck chooses not to use comedy convention and by examining the tragedy of the film story he discovers the historical facts most Europeans have not been aware of. He tells the story of Stasi agents who came to carry out operations aimed at sabotaging the structures of a totalitarian state. The director also draws on the plots German cinema has not exploited yet, like the rise and fall of the Berlin wall: he shows an argument the artists had with communist authorities; he asks questions about the limits of conformism and touches upon the issue of suicide. Fiuk examines the narrative structure of the film, the manner in which the characters and their relations are built and at the same time tries to sketch out a wider historical and social context for their actions.