Today the CD for best foreign film of last year is released. It is "the lives of other people" complete with subtitles. It is told through the eyes of an East German surveillance officer, a spy, assigned to one family. The East Germans had their population spying on each other before the wall came down. This was pre computer eaves dropping. After they closed up shop when the wall came down, the government had to decide what to do with this huge warehouse of files. Eventually they gave them to Lutheran Social Services as the best caretaker they could decide upon. People could seek their own files, but at personal risk, for neighbors or spouses or coworkers might have informed on familiars. The source was documented in the file. The film received goor reviews. I do know people who went back to Eastern Germany to do family research. The Gestapo tradition lived on in a communist garb. Frank Jacobs