Deserved winner of the Foreign Film Oscar for 2007, German film The Lives of Others is set in 1984, East Germany. It’s a tense and gripping thriller about the suspicions of the repressive GDR regime which sought to ensure that its subjects were towing the party line and not thinking of defecting to the West.

It's incredible to think such a world existed across the Berlin Wall and also that it was alive and kicking only 23 years ago.

The Lives of Others is an excellent thriller which opens the door on the Eastern block during the time of the Cold War, how in East Germany, an all-powerful Communist State was keen to preserve its artistic talents, but also anxious to ensure they towed the party line. There are minor weaknesses in the plot, but they are minor.

This is a long film (at 137 minutes), but the time passes quickly which is a mark of how riveting the story is, and the pay-off in the final moments is particularly rewarding. It will please a great many people looking for an intelligent film on the circuit and the performances particularly from Ulrich Muhe and Sebastian Koch are first-rate.