[2] Released 17 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, marking the end of the German Democratic Republic, it was the first notable drama film about the subject after a series of comedies such as Good Bye, Lenin!

This approach was widely applauded in Germany, and the film was complimented for its accurate tone despite some criticism that Wiesler's character was depicted unrealistically and with undue sympathy.

[4] In 1984 East Germany (GDR), Stasi Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler, code name HGW XX/7, is ordered by his friend and superior, Lt. Col. Anton Grubitz, to spy on playwright Georg Dreyman, whose pro-communist politics and international recognition have so far kept the state from directly monitoring him.

Dreyman's appearance as a model East German mystifies Wiesler; the playwright has no known vices or record of disloyalty or dissent at all.

Dreyman's friend Albert Jerska, a blacklisted theatrical director, gives him sheet music for Sonate vom Guten Menschen (Sonata about Good People).

Dreyman publishes an anonymous article in Der Spiegel accusing the state of concealing the country's elevated suicide rates.

Two years later, Wiesler passes a bookstore window display promoting Dreyman's new novel, Sonate vom Guten Menschen ("Sonata about Good People").

Describing his inspiration for the film's Brechtian grey color palette, cinematographer Bogdanski recalls the streets of East Berlin from the period: "They were very dark.

The website's critical consensus states: "Unlike more traditional spy films, The Lives of Others doesn't sacrifice character for cloak and dagger chases, and the performances (notably that by the late Ulrich Muhe) stay with you.

[10] A review in Daily Variety by Derek Elley described the film as "a superbly cast drama", which "balances the many dramatic and emotional strands between the players with poise and clarity".

[11] Time magazine's Richard Corliss named the film one of the Top 10 Movies of 2007, ranking it at #2 and praising a "poignant, unsettling thriller".

[14] A. O. Scott, reviewing the film in The New York Times, wrote that Lives is well-plotted, and added, "The suspense comes not only from the structure and pacing of the scenes, but also, more deeply, from the sense that even in an oppressive society, individuals are burdened with free will.

"[15] Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan agreed that the dramatic tension comes from being "meticulously plotted", and that "it places its key characters in high-stakes predicaments where what they are forced to wager is their talent, their very lives, even their souls".

[21] Lisa Schwarzbaum, writing in Entertainment Weekly, pointed out that some of the subtlety is due to the fact that its "tensest moments take place with the most minimal of action" but that the director still "conveys everything he wants us to know about choice, fear, doubt, cowardice, and heroism".

[23] The East German dissident songwriter Wolf Biermann was guardedly enthusiastic about the film, writing in a March 2006 article in Die Welt: "The political tone is authentic, I was moved by the plot.

Perhaps I was just won over sentimentally, because of the seductive mass of details which look like they were lifted from my own past between the total ban of my work in 1965 and denaturalisation in 1976".

[24] Anna Funder, the author of the book Stasiland, in a review for The Guardian called The Lives of Others a "superb film" despite not being true to reality.

In Hein's opinion, the overly dramatic events of the film bear little resemblance to his life experience, which is why he asked Donnersmarck to delete his name from the credits.

In Hein's words, "the movie does not depict the 1980s in the GDR" but is a "scary tale taking place in a fantasy land, comparable to Tolkien's Middle-earth".

[30] In February 2007, Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella announced a deal with The Weinstein Company to produce and direct an English-language remake of The Lives of Others.

[37] Daniel Ellsberg in an interview with Brad Friedman on KPFK/Pacifica Radio republished on salon.com stressed the importance of The Lives of Others in light of Edward Snowden's revelations:[38] ELLSBERG: My knowledge of the Stasi is not very extensive, but it's largely from a movie called The Lives of Others, which won the Oscar for "Best Foreign Film" some years ago.

[39] Both movies are about the morality of surveillance and the questionable reliability of information harvested – and how listeners can be duped and/or can misinterpret raw data.

"[40] On 16 July 2013, American novelist and frequent cable news commentator Brad Thor stated: "At what point did the Obama administration acquire the rights to reenact The Lives of Others?

"[41] French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave an interview in Le Figaro expressing his outrage over his being the target of surveillance.

[20] However, Gröllmann's real-life controller later claimed he had made up many of the details in the file and that the actress had been unaware that she was speaking to a Stasi agent.