Book Launch and film screening: The Lives of Others: BFI Film Classics by Annie Ring

In this new book, Annie Ring analyses the film’s formal qualities, tracing connections with Hollywood movies by Hitchcock and others in its portrayal of a spy rebelling against a dehumanising surveillance regime. Drawing on research from the Stasi files, Enlightenment philosophy and Brecht’s theories of performance, she also shows how the film tracks the political shift that took place at the end of the Cold War – away from the collective ideals of socialism and towards the dreams of the private individual.

After an introduction and a 15-minute presentation of the book by Annie Ring, the film The Lives of Others will be screened. Afterwards, a closing discussion and a reception will follow