German film about secret police wins Oscar

LOS ANGELES, Feb 26 (Reuters) Germany's ''The Lives of Others,'' a searing look at totalitarian powers once wielded by East German secret police, the Stasi, won the Oscar for best foreign language film.

The film by first-time filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck won rave reviews for its portrait of a Stasi agent who, while bugging a couple's home, develops an unexpected sympathy for them.

Von Donnersmarck wrote and directed the film. After winning the award, he thanked California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ''for teaching me that the words 'I can't' should be stricken from my vocabulary.'' Backstage he confessed a life-long fascination with Schwarzenegger and his accomplishments.

The film was a favorite for the award, along with Mexico's ''Pan's Labyrinth.'' But a surprised von Donnersmarck, 33, said he had expected ''Pan's'' to win, since it had already won three Oscars before the award for best foreign film was given.

Also in contention were Denmark's ''After the Wedding,'' Algeria's ''Days of Glory'' and Canada's ''Water.'' Von Donnersmarck's film, distributed in the United States by Sony Pictures Classics, a unit of Sony Corp. has been hailed as an intelligent, honest look at how East Germany's Stasi shattered lives.

The film swept last year's ''Lola'' awards in Germany and the European Film Awards, and the Oxford-educated filmmaker said in a recent interview with Reuters he hoped an Oscar would give the film more exposure and ''signal power.'' ''An Oscar is the ultimate symbol of recognition so it means everything,'' he said. ''Everybody in the world dreams of winning an Oscar, even people who don't work in films.'' Backstage, he said he's long been a fan of American directors.

''American films influenced me quite a lot,'' he said. ''Robert Zemeckis is someone who you critics don't treat well enough,'' he said, referring to the director of past best picture Oscar winner ''Forrest Gump.'' ''Just because it's presented in this perfect way people think it must come easy,'' he said.

''The Lives of Others,'' set several years before the Berlin Wall fell, exposes how the Communist state invaded people's lives. It features a Stasi officer assigned to spy on a playwright and his actress girlfriend.

''I was happy it worked against this whole new phenomenon in Germany that people feel nostalgic for the East and start glorifying the Communist past,'' he said.

The director grew up in New York, West Berlin, Frankfurt and Brussels, and he visited East Berlin as a child with his mother, who had relatives there.

''We knew we were endangering them,'' he said last year in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. ''It was just 20 years ago.

It showed me, as a child, that while adults were in control, circumstances could change and get them scared. I had an inkling of what went on. Everyone knows how it feels to have your privacy violated. But I wanted all the details to be 100 percent accurate.'' Von Donnersmarck spent a year-and-a-half researching East Germany and its ministry of state.

Backstage, von Donnersmarck said his new Oscar would be handy.

''I was told that if you have an Oscar you can get into any party.'' REUTERS SHB SSC1315