Movie: The Lives of Others
The critics have been fairly uniform in their praise for this film. The period of history – East Germany before the Berlin Wall came down – was unfamiliar to me, but the film captures the mood of people living under such a regime: constantly fawning to those in power, looking for advancement.
The film is rated MA for a few scenes of sexuality, which (unusually for film) serve to advance the plot and characters. It’s a story of redemption, though it has no reference to God that I could spot. , If you’re happy to watch a film in German with subtitles (not everyone is), it’s well worth a look.