20 years ago, the border between East Germany and West Germany came down, and the Soviet regime officially toppled. Many of us were just tots in 1989, or maybe even just a twinkle in our daddy’s eye, but you can easily see what living under the Soviets in East Germany was like through film.

A great film to start with is Good Bye Lenin!, a German tragicomedy directed by Wolfgang Becker that spans from the era of German Democratic Republic to after the fall of the wall. The main character, Alex, is forced to hide the end of Soviet rule from his mother when she awakens from a coma, because as a fervent Communist, doctors simply don’t think her heart will be able to handle the shock. It’s hilarious in a lot of ways, but at the same time a serious family drama, and the soundtrack is a beautiful score by Yann Tiersen, who also did the soundtrack for Amelie.

For something a bit more serious, check out the German drama The Lives of Others by director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It’s about an agent of the German secret police (the Stasi), spying on absolutely every aspect of citizens’ lives. Stasi agents secretly install small microphones all over a playwright’s flat when he is suspected of helping a friend defect, and a Stasi officer, Weisler, is assigned to monitor him at all times. In the process, Weisler becomes quite fond of the playwright and his girlfriend, and tries to secretly protect them. The surveillance in this movie is completely realistic, and the paranoia, censorship and total lack of privacy in the film show what it was really like to live under Communist rule.

Finally, a lighter film but an absolute must-see is Hedwig and the Angry Inch, directed by and starring John Cameron Mitchell. It’s a musical about a young transgendered man named Hansel living with his mother in the German Democratic Republic, who undergoes a sex change operation in order to marry an American officer and flee to the West. The sex change operation gets botched, the wall falls mere days afterwards anyhow, and Hansel becomes Hedwig. Once in America, Hedwig tours with her band of Eastern Bloc Rock ambassadors and tries to find her soulmate It’s a lighthearted but very soulful flick, and the pop-rock soundtrack by Stephen Trask, will have you tapping your toes for days.

Got any other must-see films about the GDR? Comment below!