Babson College will show the Academy Award winning film The Lives of Others on Thursday, October 11^th, and Bamako on Tuesday, November 13^th. Both films will be shown in the Sorenson Theater beginning at 7:00 p.m., free of charge.

The Lives of Others, a German movie directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, is the winner of Best Foreign Film at the 2006 Academy Awards. It is both a political thriller and a deeply moving human drama set in East Berlin before Glasnost. The film chronicles the story of an officer in the ruthless secret police known as the Stasi, who is assigned to spy on a celebrated writer. His immersion into the lives of others makes him aware of what he lacks in his own life and the possibilities of a different sort of existence.   

Bamako, directed by Abderrahmane Sissako filmed in Mali in 2000, is the personal story of a couple on the verge of breaking up told alongside very public political proceedings. In a courtyard outside the couple’s home, the community has put the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on trial for being in the business of impoverishing Africa – with help from the African elite. Co-produced by Danny Glover, the film has been called “one of the most original cinematic achievements of this decade…a fearless high-wire act of intellectual and cinematic daring that will leave your brain buzzing.”