The Lives of Others

INT. STASI DETENTION CENTER HOHENSCHÖNHAUSEN - MORNING
A PRISONER in civilian clothes is led down an apparently endless prison corridor with a linoleum floor, past dozens of cells. Title on screen: 'November 1984, BERLIN-HOHENSCHÖNHAUSEN DETENTION CENTER OF THE MINISTRY OF STATE SECURITY'
Suddenly red warning lamps come on all along the corridor.
GUARD?Stand still. Eyes to the floor.
At the end of the corridor another prisoner in a prison uniform is led past along a corridor that crosses the first. When he has passed through, the red light goes out.
GUARD (CONT'D) Walk on.
The guard leads the first prisoner further along the corridor until they stop outside the door of one of the many interrogation rooms.
GUARD (CONT'D) Address him as 'Captain'!
He knocks on the door.

INT. HOHENSCHÖNHAUSEN, INTERROGATION ROOM - AT THE SAME TIME
The interrogation room is decorated with white wallpaper, and sluggish daylight seeps through off-white curtains. The furniture - shelves and a desk - are made of pale laminated wood. A sickly plant without a single flower stands on the windowsill. Hanging on the walls are a photographic portrait of General Secretary Honecker and a faded landscape photograph showing an autumn forest path. GERD WIESLER, a gaunt man in his mid-forties wearing a plain uniform, stands by the window, hears the knocking and calls over to the door.
WIESLER One moment.
He walks to one of the shelves and opens a drawer containing a tape recorder. He switches it on, shuts the drawer and sits down. His movements are precise and minimal.
WIESLER (CONT'D)
Enter.
The guard brings the prisoner in, a slightly built man of about 30. He stands rather awkwardly in the room. Wiesler doesn't look up at him. He studies the prisoner's files on the table.
WIESLER (CONT'D)
Sit down.
The prisoner does so. He sits down carefully on a chair upholstered with orange fabric.
WIESLER (CONT'D) (without looking up) Hands under your thighs, palms
down.
Confused, the

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck is the award-winning director of The Lives of Others and The Tourist . Born in 1973, he grew up in New York City, Brussels, Frankfurt and West Berlin, he studied Russian literature in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) before obtaining an MA in Politics, Philosophy and economics from Oxford and a diploma in film direction from the University of Film and Television in Munich. The Lives of Others won the European Film Award for Best Film and Best Screenplay, the LA Film Critics' Association award, and the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

"Both a political document and an enduring work of art" John le Carré