E. German Hoenecker jokes (hang up and try again- similarity between phone and H;

Erich Honecker wakes up, throws open his doors and welcomes the rising sun with a hearty "Good morning." "Good morning, dear Erich," it replies. After lunch he greets the sun again. "Good day, dear Erich," it responds. At bedtime he bids the sun goodnight. "Kiss my ass," it tells him. "I'm in the West now."

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The inanity of eavesdropping on the same person; Stockholm syndrome can operate both ways i.e. the holder of captive cannot maintain a detached approach for long if he is not brain dead and heartless; there comes a time when you have to admit that your job has no higher purpose and is also killing you mentally. You know you are in the wrong job when the kid in your block eyes you with suspicion and shows little respect. You have to acknowledge that you cannot break the spirit of those you suppress. You never have absolute power, only illusions of power and you become more in control of your life the sooner you realize that. Wiesler does, his boss does not or refuses to do so. The relationship between the two reminds one of the intelligence boss in ‘Burn after reading’.

Every job can be made interesting if enough mental effort is made. Equally, no end to the boringness of a job if no effort is made.

Towards the end, Laszo, the dissident writer protagonist, confronts the Minister who had ordered surveillance and harassed his partner-an actress- and expresses wonder at the moral and intellectual caliber of the people who ruled the country. Stupid people can rule a country badly without harming lives of people too much. It is when the not so bright wield unbridled power and start intruding into the personal lives and controlling them that disaster strikes. The movie brings out the results of efficiency wrongly directed. Many are employed but there is little or zero constructive output(opening letters and compiling statistics of useless things and ignoring the figures that would present the regime in bad light). How the air of secrecy vitiates everything, from professional relationships to personal ones. The dependency that it breeds. You are free to discuss/ameliorate for the very little time when you are in open territory, safe nowhere.

The awe in which artists are held- in GDR, where little question of money and televised show off, it is the freedom to use their mind, body(the colleague of Wiesler? says that the artists are always enjoying themselves in bed) that is envied most by the mindless bureaucrats. W meeting Christa Maria in the pub and expressing his appreciation of her ‘art’ and requesting her to be herself. He is assuming that he has got to know her real self by listening in to her.

Joke again. The leader of the GDR, Erich Honecker, wants to know what the people really think of him. So goes out among the people in disguise. He asks a man on the street: "Excuse me, but what do you think of Honecker?" The man leads him down a side street, makes sure that nobody hears him, and whispers into Erich's ear, "I support Honecker!"

The joke brings out both the degree of suppression/uncertainty (even supporters of Honecker cannot be sure to be safe-the insecurity and arbitrariness is brought out nicely by another joke in which a jail inmate tells another,” you cannot be sentenced for 5 yrs for doing nothing since the sentence for that crime is 10”. Non-supporters of Honecker know that even lonely streets are not safe) and the degree of knowledge (everyone including Honecker knows that everything is rotten but everyone also knows that their salvation lies in maintaining the charade, not getting caught and ensuring that other loyalists get sidelined; the dissident know that the rulers know that they are disliked; the rulers know that the dissidents know that the rulers are inept and cannot be trusted)

In Jafar Panahi's ‘Mirrors’-had also been hooked from the very start by his white balloon and Offside-one is left wondering at many points why the people little Mina encounters are not extra helpful; these doubts are only partially resolved by the ‘baring the device’ in the middle of the movie. Many of The previous scenes have to be re-interpreted (again without complete resolution/satisfaction) after the revelation. Panahi does not want to give explanations, only document the city life(tehran) seen from eyes of an adventrous grade 2? girl and the background talk of bus riders, walkers. He also always keeps the viewer hungry, and sometimes impatient, for what happens next.

The unreliability and incompleteness of her ‘knowledge’ provides the rambling but never dull story. Mirrors has more adventure than White Balloon and some of the child’s responses are much more adult like and jaded. Both the girls are not very patient but in Mirrors, the girl has little time to sit and think and have a conversation(she having no elder brother, as in White balloon, to help her negotiate). At the same time, she trusts completely the kinder people she questions and entreats them (bus driver, policeman, old lady) to come with her to the destination that is flashing through her mind at that moment. Knows a few things but cannot put them all together. Neither can those who try to help her since the info is insufficient.

Most of those who are asked for help have valid reasons for not staying with her for long. She is not afraid to ask questions and is confident of her ability to find her way. A small girl wondering about for so long - what does it say about her society? The girl is treated as an adult (only because of her confidence?) and sometimes she displays the indifference of adults-the scooter and car crashes do not affect her much.

No society can be unidimensional. Young girls more free to talk, act and move about than adult women. The freedom that she has when she cannot value it and use it well will be absent when she wants it later in life. The bus scene of the engaged? couple exchanging loving glances and unaware of Mina ‘catching’ them tells a lot about the constraints women have to live under and also of the small mercies. Mina's smile is also a mix of innocence and knowingness.

Mina’s parents can be blamed for not making arrangements for her going home and also for making her act. but this is something that everybody seems ready to overlook, if not condone.

Panahi is perhaps making a comment on the value of capturing random movements and interactions of a small girl. It might be better than following a more predictable adult but invading the private world of a kid becomes self-defeating after a certain point.

Svejk like combo of angel and devil.