The German flick that won the foreign language Oscar.

Really, really good. About secrets and trust, and oppression and cohersion. About a sad lonely man who finds himself making unexpected decisions. About figuring out the game. When is one a pawn, and when is one the chess player?

Sad. And bleak, that deep grey institutional graffiti-ed bleakness that you may recall from old books or films you haven’t seen in a long time about that particular point in German/world history…

As my dad says frequently, “I miss the Cold War.”