Off topic, but The Lives of Others is an excellent film. I had trouble sympathizing with some of the persecuted artists under surveillance, partially because they reminded me of western academics, but also because I've never lived under a draconian surveillance state. Ulrich Muehe's performance is wonderful and complex. The last scene where the artist reads the transcripts, discovers how Muehe protected him, and then drives to meet Muehe but ends up only watching him deliver mail in a dilapidated corner of post-Wall Berlin is heart-wrenching. Need to watch it again.