The movie had to be made exciting so there are some exaggerated elements / but it was absolutely fun and exciting. Being born behind the iron curtain before this all happened I find it amazing that some reviewers here say this is some anti communist propaganda, when this is pretty much how it was back then. So don't listen to the haters, the actual people were involved in making this film as accurate as possible while still being a "Hollywood" movie. And yes, you lived in the same apartment the government gave you, no you could not freely speak, think and yes the secret police and army of civilian informers were infiltrated in every part of society. And there was not always food you could buy, and it was certainly amazing to have bananas in the stores (not in the movie) people who grew up in the west and not in the former Soviet block have zero understanding of how life was back then, and can be forgiven to think that this and other accounts of the Soviet era are some sort of parodies, the sad truth that they aren't nearly as exaggerated as you might think. It was pretty bad back then. This movie is absolutely excellent.
