The Lives of Others (2006)

This movie is so incredibly good that it has been praised by a spectrum ranging from my gay friend Steve to William F. Buckley Jr., the latter saying that after first seeing this picture he felt like going out into the street and dragging random passerby into the theater to see it. It is the story of a Stasi agent in mid 1980's East Germany assigned to spy on a respected play write and his actress girlfriend. Over the time he spends monitoring this couple he is changed as a man, from a soulless automaton for the state, into a compassionate soul who risks his life and career to cover for the two, when they finally get involved in ‘subversive activities’, a change brought on by a friends suicide. Beautiful and effecting in every way, to my judgment the best picture of 2006! Winner of that years Oscar for best picture forgine picture, upsetting Pan’s Labyrinth.