Movie Recommendation

I just finished watching "The Lives of Others," the 2007 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film and it was excellent. It's set in East Berlin in the mid-80's and is a portrayal of life and government in the GDR. The basic plot is a Stasi agent starts monitoring the life of an artist for suspicious behaviour. But the longer he observes, the more he starts questioning his life and loyalties. It's gripping and a tear-jerker at moments, and especially interesting because I recognized a few of the Berlin landmarks. Here's a New Yorker article describing the movie. As a disclaimer, it's rated R, so viewer beware.

Speaking of movies, the Berlin Film Festival, Berlinale, was in town a couple weeks ago. For 2 weeks the city was overrun by film makers, actors and viewers. I didn't run into anyone famous, but a couple of my friends saw the Rolling Stones (who performed on the opening night... when we were in Istanbul), and Scarlett Johanson. The offices of the Berlinale are in the PwC building, so the sleepy building was bustling with activity during the festival. The ticketing process for the films was rather confusing. Tickets went on sale 3 days ahead of time, and were frequently sold out within a day. A group of us did manage to get tickets for one film, "To Verdener" (or "Worlds Apart"). It was a Danish film about a family of Jehovah's Witnesses. The oldest girl falls in love with an atheist and it's about her struggle between family, faith and love. It was a touching movie and I liked more than I expected. Even Rens admitted he enjoyed it!