The Man on the Other Side

In 1974, Sophie Zimmermann, Mari Bensel, is a meek, bespectacled woman in her late-30s, working for the West German Federal Ministry of Defence in Bonn. For six months, she has been copying top secret government documents. After a tense interrogation by a superior officer, she makes a run for the border. On the day of the escape, however, she is captured by a mysterious, unknown assailant.

Sophie wakes up in a dimly lit cellar, drugged and tied. As she struggles to break free of her restraints, she remembers her first meeting with Dieter Schäfer, Nils Schulz, a smooth-talking young salesman who captured her heart, and set her on the path of stealing top secret documents.

As she tries to find her way out of this makeshift prison, she discovers a young Englishman, James Carney, imprisoned in an inner room. She is told that she has been captured by the Stasi, and that they are deep in East Germany. Her boyfriend, it seems, has betrayed her.

As Sophie and the Englishman plot to escape, they bond together in their shared suffering. She reveals to him the government secrets that she had shared with Dieter, while he tells her of his unsuccessful, desperate solo attempt at smuggling his Russian girlfriend to the safety of the West.

It turns out that her captor is in fact, the Englishman, who is an MI6 agent. They are in fact, not in East Germany, but in a safe house somewhere in rural North Rhine-Westphalia, in West Germany.

Because of conditions in the federal constitution, BND intelligence agents are not allowed to torture and kill West German citizens. Instead, they have contracted the MI6 agent to find out exactly how much she knew, and what information she passed on to the Stasi, which includes information on the number of nuclear missiles placed in West Germany by the Americans.

Sophie escapes, and is chased throughout the darkened and abandoned hotel. She manages to lock the Englishman in another cell, and finds Dieter, tortured and near death. Sharing Dieter’s last breaths, a grieving Sophie, walks out of the hotel and into a new life, leaving the Englishman locked up to a slow and lonely death.

Last Updated: October 01, 2025 at 13:04