Highly deserved winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, "The Lives of Others" may be the most politically moving, subtle and suspenseful film that we have seen in a long time.

It resonates on so many levels, including the horror of the potential for unchecked governmental power to ruin lives. It is the story of individuals whose destinies, unfortunately, become intertwined in East Germany, a few years (1984) before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Masterfully acted in an understated way, the viewer is both a voyeur of the spying done on behalf of a East German government minister using the Stasi for his libidinous personal goals -- and a sympathizer with the plight of a playwright and his actress lover, both of them who are loyal to the East German government. Yet, loyalty is of no importance given the obsession of the minister who has them both monitored 24 hours a day for reasons that we won't disclose, at the risk of revealing too much about this absorbing drama.

It is a political thriller that scintillates with the questions that it provokes through the unfolding of its plot -- and its unerringly persuasive revelation of character.

None of the actors fail their roles or the film for a moment. And the script is as crisp and sharp as a tack. Capt. Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) provides one of the most nuanced performances of any that we have recently seen, in a role that demands that emotion be shown sparingly, if at all.

"The Lives of Others" is exhilirating and solemn at the same time.