The Lives of Others

I just finished watching the movie " the Lives of Others". This was the third time I watch this German movie and every time I do, I enjoy it even more. The Lives of Others won the Oscars for the Best Foreign Movie in the year 2007 and certainly deserved the win, hands down.

The reason why I felt I would share my admiration of this particular movie with you is what happens at the end of the movie where it shows Georg Dreyman just realizing that he was actually under surveillance for years while he thought he wasn't cause he knew that had he been under domestic surveillance, he would have been put in jail years earlier. It goes on to show how the East Germans dealt with crossing from the pre- to the post-soviet era, the transition from absolute fear to absolute freedom which in many was similar to what happened in Iraq since 2003. You can't help but wonder how Iraq would look like now had we been a bit civilized and humane in the way we treated each other during the transition? and I call transition but it was not really a transition. We just replaced one tyrant with gang of tyrants and one thief with a gang of thieves. The problem is most Iraqis are still being driven by fear from each other that is implanted and nurtured by the religious/political figures currently in power. Those could not care less about Iraq and the Iraqis. They only thing that these political and religious leaders (Sunnis and Shi'a) have or will care about is power and money, no more, no less and the hell with the Iraqis. Unfortunately, Iraqis are still buying that and I'm almost sure that comes the next elections, Iraqis will vote in the same sectarian way they did last time and that is mainly owed to the ignorance and consistent brain washing that ordinary Iraqis have been exposed to. It will take generations to get rid of the sectarian divide cause there is just too many beneficiaries from this divide to go away now and these are the people in power plus the neighboring countries.

Back to the movie, one other thing that struck me is that Georg Dreyman was able to retrieve the surveillance reports and know exactly who was the individual spying on him and then track down where the spy was. The fact that the spy, Wiesler, was still alive, working as a postman and traceable surprised me cause I remembered how ALL the records of the Iraqi state were destroyed and burnt and how the "de- baathification" was quickly set up and how the army was dismantled in a haste and that all led to the mess that we have seen over the past five years. History, which is something that we Arabs and Iraqis always try to remind ourselves of, always tells us that to move forward, you have to forgive. The Germans did just that. They just turned the page and worked together for a better Germnany. They did not listen to imported religious agendas that is clearly working against the interest of their country. I think I have said enough but I couldn't help think what a great nation mean! just a food for thought.