THE Lives of Others deserved to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at this year s awards. Here we have a brilliant, tense thriller revolving around the dark days of East Berlin when the secret police – the Stasi – ruled. It was time

THE Lives of Others deserved to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's awards.

Here we have a brilliant, tense thriller revolving around the dark days of East Berlin when the secret police - the Stasi - ruled.

It was time when ordinary citizens were "recruited" to spy on each other.

In this case the victims of the surveillance society were a playwright and his actress girlfriend, and their radical colleagues.

But as in any worthwhile thriller there are twists and turns which see the spy turning against his spy masters and beginning to question his own role in the culture of the time.

The screenplay, itself, was inspired by actual events which gives The Lives of Others more than a touch a reality.