It takes time for European movies to sail down to Oz. It’s probably a good thing, as the ones that are not good enough usually drown and never make it down here to pollute our waters. Yet pity that the better ones can’t sail a little faster or take a plane instead.

Anyway, enough of mediocre jokes! Time for real mediocre views now!

Following its unpredicted although not surprising Oscar success earlier this year, German movie The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen, 2006) hit Australian and other English-speaking cinemas. A movie about Stasi agent spying on a dramatist and his mistress is cinematically simple, nevertheless captivating and convincing. What makes it a real gem forcing people to remember it, is main character’s face through which audience reads his thoughts and understands his moves.

It’s East Berlin of 1984 — that almost makes one think it isn’t coincidence — when agent Gerd Wiesler (outstanding Ulrich Mühe) sets surveillance on Georg Dreyman, played by Sebastian Koch, and his lover Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). Obviously, he’s only following the orders. Until he finds out that a minister of culture lures Dreyman’s girlfriend and wouldn’t mind having him out of the way.

That somehow makes agent Wiesler re-think his commitment to watch and report while he’s getting to know Dreyman. Gradually, a first-rate spy starts to gather useless intelligence and covers Dreyman’s actions in a bid to keep him out of jail. Wiesler becomes intentionally ineffective, and potentially self-destructing. Deep down, he changes, but for those around him, this change goes overlooked. Bosses question his competence and as he hardly talks to or meets anyone else, there’s no one to notice his metamorphose. Yet he bears the cross of being ousted until the fall of the regime, and even afterwards, as a former Stasi agent.

The debut of German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck is a bit long, albeit a superb film. It avoids cliché, doesn’t mentor, makes people talk, and above all, drives Hollywood to produce a remake. Definitely worth seeing.