56. THE LIVES OF OTHERS (2007)

Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe), a captain in the East Berlin secret police, keeps his every move, glance, and word so methodical, he's practically an ascetic. That is, until Wiesler's assigned to spy on a playwright (Sebastian Koch) and his actress lover (Martina Gedeck), who's caught the eye of a high-ranking state official. Instead, Wiesler finds himself working against his superiors, desperate to save the lives, and love, of a couple that should be his quarry, in what's at once a wrenching morality play and a nail-biting thriller.