East Berlin, November 1984. Five years before its downfall, the former East-German government ensured its claim to power with a ruthless system of control and surveillance. Party-loyalist Captain Gerd Wiesler hopes to boost his career when given the job of collecting evidence against a playwright and his girlfriend. He doesn't anticipate the impact that the exercise will have upon him. The immersion in the lives of others – in love, literature, free thinking and speech – causes Wiesler to reevaluate his own outlook; dangerously, it also opens to him an increasingly irresistable new way of life.

SBS TWO, Wesnesday August 10 @ 10.05pm