Hinnerk Schönemann

A young businesswoman gets in touch with her taste for cutthroat corporate tactics by slowly seducing her inner demons in The State I Am In writer/director Christian Petzold's free-flowing dramatic thriller. Immediately accosted by her ex-husband, Ben (Hinnerk Schönemann), upon returning to her hometown of Wittenberg, Yella Fichte (Nina Hoss) blows her former spouse off before informing her father that she has landed a lucrative accounting position in Hanover. When Ben subsequently offers Yella a ride to the airport, she reluctantly accepts but immediately realizes her mistake when he lashes out at her in an angry tirade before driving the car into the River Elbe. Just barely managing to escape from the car before her lungs fill with water, Yella swims to the shore and catches the first train to Hanover. As it turns out, Yella's new boss (Michael Wittenborn) has just been fired, yet after rejecting his thinly veiled advances the job-seeking woman seems to experience a stroke of luck when she makes the acquaintance of roving venture capitalist Philipp (Devid Striesow). Later, after Yella accompanies cold and calculating businessman Philipp to an important meeting, the relationship between the pair quickly turns personal. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A man who has devoted his life to ferreting out "dangerous" characters is thrown into a quandary when he investigates a man who poses no threat in this drama, the first feature from German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It's 1984, and Capt. Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) is an agent of the Stasi, the East German Secret Police. Weisler carefully and dispassionately investigates people who might be deemed some sort of threat to the state. Shortly after Weisler's former classmate, Lt. Col. Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur), invites him to a theatrical piece by celebrated East German playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), Minister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme) informs Weisler that he suspects Dreyman of political dissidence, and wonders if this renowned patriot is all that he seems to be. As it turns out, Hempf has something of an ulterior motive for trying to pin something on Dreyman: a deep-seated infatuation with Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), Dreyman's girlfriend. Nevertheless, Grubitz, who is anxious to further his career, appoints Weisler to spy on the gentleman with his help. Weisler plants listening devices in Dreyman's apartment and begins shadowing the writer. As Weisler monitors Dreyman's daily life, however (from a secret surveillance station in the gentleman's attic), he discovers the writer is one of the few East Germans who genuinely believes in his leaders. This changes over time, however, as Dreyman discovers that Christa-Maria is being blackmailed into a sexual relationship with Hempf, and one of Dreyman's friends, stage director Albert Jerska (Volkmar Kleinert), is driven to suicide after himself being blackballed by the government. Dreyman's loyalty thus shifts away from the East German government, and he anonymously posts an anti-establishment piece in a major newspaper which rouses the fury of government officials. Meanwhile, Weisler becomes deeply emotionally drawn into the lives of Dreyman and Sieland, and becomes something of an anti-establishment figure himself, embracing freedom of thought and expression. A major box-office success in Germany, Das Leben der Anderen (aka The Lives of Others) received its North American premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A woman assumes a new identity in order to start her life over again in this drama from Germany. Fariba Tarizi (Jasmin Tabatabai) is an Iranian woman who wants to leave her country to escape the persecution that comes with being a lesbian. Fariba manages to make her way to Germany before it's discovered that her passport and visa are forgeries; she applies for political asylum, but is told she doesn't have much of a chance of being allowed to stay. While held in custody by immigration officials, Fariba meets Siamak (Navid Akhavan), a young man who has also fled Iran and is terrified by the prospect of having to go back. Siamak panics and kills himself, and when Fariba discovers his body, she takes his belongings, dresses in his clothes, cuts her hair and escapes custody posing as a man. Making her way into Stuttgart, Fariba gets a job at a canning plant, where she becomes friendly with Anna (Anneke Kim Sarnau), a single mother who has no idea Fariba is really a woman. Fariba becomes infatuated with Anna, and Anna makes it clear she feels the same way, but Fariba isn't sure how to tell her that she's really a woman, a situation made all the more difficult when she learns "Siamak" must return to Iran in two weeks. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide