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Regardless of their time period, political adversaries will always be defined by the same ideal – the extreme lengths leaders will go to maintain their power, as their opponents determinedly try to stop and expose their tactics. That’s certainly the case for the cast featured in the new historical mystery documentary, The Spies Among Us.

The film chronicles how a a previous victim of East Germany’s Stasi confronts former East German secret police officers to expose the personal costs of dictatorship. Overall, The Spies Among Us offers a rare look into the inner workings of a data-driven surveillance state run by the Stasi, one of the most feared secret police forces the world has ever known.

A personal investigation into family secrets by Peter Keup, a Stasi victim-turned-historian, takes a turn when he contacts the men who ran the system. These are the first conversations of their kind between Stasi officers and a victim.

The feature was directed and produced by married filmmaking team, Jamie Coughlin Silverman and Gabriel Silverman. The latter also served as the cinematographer on the movie. In addition to Keup, the film also includes Heinz Engelhardt, Jochem Girke, Bernd Roth, Harald Korff, Roland Keup, Uta Keup, Susanne Schädlich, Uwe Wons and Michael Schindler.