History in Films

The films The Lives of Others and Persepolis differ greatly in the stories they tell and how they tell them. Persepolis uses 2-dimensional animation to tell the story of Marjane, a girl who grew up in a country ravaged by war and oppression. The Lives of Others tells the story of Wiesler, a Stasi captain in East Berlin putting a man under total surveillance. Despite the differences between the stories, they share common ground in critiquing oppressive governments that punish people for disagreeing with them and for essentially trying to run the lives of its citizens. Both movies end similarly with Marjane moving to France to escape Iran and with Wiesler protecting Georg from getting arrested by the Stasi for writing the article about the concealed suicide rates in the GDR. In both films, an innocent party is liberated from a government whose purpose is to restrict its liberties. Both films communicate the message of the necessity to be true to oneself when one's government and one's own personal beliefs conflict with one another, despite the consequences.

Marjane stays true to herself by resolving to never compromise her values at the end of the film in honor of her Uncle Anoosh, who is a representation of integrity in the film. In the scene where the students at her college are at a meeting and the women are being asked to where longer scarves and tighter pants, she speaks out against this new regulation, pointing out the contradictions the speakers made. We see throughout the movie Marjane is not afraid to speak her mind. In the scene where the nuns are complaining about Marjane eating out of a saucepan, one nun remarks that Iranians have no education. Marjane stands up for herself by angrily replying that all the nuns used to be prostitutes, losing her housing. Although speaking out against the nuns caused them to kick her out, she was still true to herself by not letting them insult her for her nationality. When Marjane wrongfully accuses a man of insulting her to avoid getting in trouble with the police, she compromises her integrity and disappoints her grandmother. In this instance not staying true to herself detrimentally affected someone else.

Wiesler stays true to himself by going against the Stasi to protect Georg and Christa-Maria. He is shocked when he discovers the reason Georg has been put under surveillance is so that they might be able to find some incriminating evidence to have him arrested so Hempf can have his lover Christa-Maria. Despite truly believing in what the GDR stands for, he understands that their motives for putting Georg under surveillance are not for the security of the state, and eventually ends up losing his job to protect Georg's freedom of speech. If he were to have continued doing his job the way the Stasi wanted him to, Georg would have been arressted; like Marjane, compromising his integrity would have detrimentally affected to someone else. Even when he interrogates Christa-Maria to find out where Georg's typewriter is and discovers its location, he goes over to their house to take it so Georg won't get arrested.