(Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck / Germany / 2006 / 35mm / 137 mins / Cert 15) (Tue 5th / 8pm / £2ttt)
A tense examination of cold war politics, following the life of a surveillance expert of the East German Stasi bugging a suspected subversive writer in 1980s Berlin. Reminiscent of Coppola’s The Conversation in mood, this incisive film puts a human face on an otherwise unimaginably dehumanizing system of government.