Two must-see films at BAM.  I am so there this weekend.

THE LIVES OF OTHERS: an intelligent, absorbing
thriller has garnered critical raves and numerous award
nominations—winning the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Set in East
Germany in 1984, The Lives of Others captures the atmosphere of
tension in the East German government near the end of the Cold War,
through an exceptional script and superb performances. The film
revolves around the loyal, stone-faced Stasi agent Capt. Wiesler as he
bugs an apartment shared by a prominent playwright and his actress
girlfriend—two people about whom the Party harbors suspicions. Filled
with plot twists and nerve-shattering suspense, the film’s political
critique, conspiracy themes, and images of surveillance recall classic
paranoid precursors such as The Conversation, Blow-Out, and The Parallax View. In German with English subtitles. 

THE NAMESAKE combines the intimate pleasures of a family saga with a finely
sustained inquiry into the difficult balance between separation and
integration that shapes the lives of first-generation immigrants and
their children in crucially different ways.
—The Village Voice

The family drama The Namesake
begins in Calcutta with the arranged marriage of Ashoke Ganguli (Khan)
and Ashima (Tabu) then follows the couple to New York where they start
a family and learn to adapt to their new home. In the vein of Mira
Nair’s previous culture-clashing films Mississipi Masala and Monsoon Wedding,
this adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel presents an immigrant
experience that many people can relate to. In particular, Kal Penn’s
assured performance has earned critics’ accolades; as Gogol, the
Ganguli’s Americanized son, he captures his character’s ambivalent
feelings as he struggles to balance the expectations of two cultures. The Namesake is a touching film about different generations of the same family, and a delightful combination of humor, drama, and romance.