Barbara is a German film by director Christian Petzold about a woman doctor living in East Berlin, under control of the Soviet allied government before the fall of the Berlin Wall. In a terrific performance by actress Nina Hoss, Barbara is very talented doctor, but is being punished for trying to go to the west. The job she's placed in is quite undesirable, and she live under continual harassment from the Stasi secret police, one officer of which is particularly harsh on her, so it's understandable quite mistrustful of strangers. But even so she dedicates herself to her patients, as much as she can within the societies confines. She wants very much to keep trying to go a freer Europe.The relationships Barbara has with her new supervisor Andre, who might have more than one motive to be near to her, is truly fascinating and complex, and I would say the best part of film. She wants to distance herself from him and her other colleagues at first, for reasons which are later justified, but also finds she cannot isolate herself either. She has emotional connections with a few patients, she treats, one of which is a particularly disturbing case of a girl who ran away from a work camp who's initially difficult to the other doctors but Barbara finds a way to connect. At home she's usually alone, unless there's a terrifying surprise visit from the Stasi. But she has engagements elsewhere other than home or hospital that show the full range of a woman she is.If this isn't on the level of the a few other modern masterpieces about east European life behind the Iron Curtain in the last decade of the Soviet Union—I'm thinking of The Lives of Others, and 4 Month 3 Week & 2 Days—it's a extremely admirable and smart one that comes close, which shows human desires in the face of repression and the fear one lives under in such society. It's part thriller with romantic elements, but more so it's a human look the interaction between several different individuals in this society where ones fated role dictated by the society can be very hard to escape.

BARBARA may be a little too slow and humorless for many tastes, but it's one of those films that's so real it hardly seems like a film at all. You have to admire the stark realism here. Whether you want to go there or not, this film truly takes you to a secluded province of East Germany, 1980. BARBARA affords an acute look at the inside of a totalitarian state. While it doesn't show a whole lot in this regard, what it does is shown most effectively. The lack of any soundtrack--something I didn't even notice while viewing but that one of the reviews on Amazon pointed out--only adds to BARBARA's immediacy. Quietly immersing, with a real surprise at the end. Excellent cinematography and fine acting by all.

Barbara (2012)A somber, tightly scripted, almost old-fashioned film. I can picture this in black white, or a movie not only set in 1980 but shot then, too. I mean this all as a compliment.It's key to know that this is Communist East Germany, a closed country under Soviet influence and generally struggling to keep up with West Germany. The doldrums depicted, and the lower quality of medical care at this small provincial clinic, are very real. The title character is a downtrodden doctor who was caught trying to escape to the West, and was sent to the boondocks as punishment. And she is periodically searched by the authorities, who go through her apartment, her body cavities, her entire personal life while she passively waits. It's awful. And very real.There is a steady vague story line showing Barbara's contacts to sympathetic Germans, and it seems one or two of them are visiting now and then from the West. Clandestine meetings with money (and sex) continue in the woods, but these are minor points in her steady work as a doctor in the clinic.More important, it turns out, is the cute and steady-handed male doctor who runs the clinic. She doesn't trust him. If he asks questions out of curiosity she isn't sure if he's a spy or just a nice guy. We aren't sure either. His life is simple and has simple pleasures, and he likes her and tries to make her open up and actually smile, which turns out to be the hardest thing in the whole movie.Barbara's plans to escape seem to be threatened by her job commitment, which she can't shirk because it'll draw attention to her irregularities. And so things go in this windy, North German countryside. It's so beautifully, patiently wrought, you have to watch and wait, just as passively as Barbara. It's sad, for sure, and yet there are these small glimmers. For one thing, there is the idea that no matter what your circumstances there is always the ability to be good and to do good. The male doctor is the example of this, and Barbara begins to see something more genuine at work than her own superficial (we assume) strivings for a consumerist West.It's odd to see such a balanced and yet truthful view of Communist Germany. The oppression is real and bad, but the strivings of regular people (doctors and others) make hope possible. I loved this movie, even though fairly little happens, and there are few turns of the plot that are clearly for dramatic impact more than an integral building of character. But these are small caveats. The total effect is simple and penetrating, with a beautiful ending.

I visited Eastern Europe, Berlin, Prague, and Budapest, in March 1990. At that time, the Berlin Wall had already been fallen down, but Germany had not reunited yet.People could freely come and go over the borders between East and West Germany. I went through Checkpoint Charlie to East Berlin, and I visited retro-future TV tower and saw Ladas running on street.In a night train from Berlin to Prague, I asked a passenger who sat next to me if Germany would reunite in a year, and he answered that he didn't believe it would happen so early. In fact, Germany reunited in October 1990.Although I actually visited East Berlin, now, it is hardly for me to believe that the half of Germany was a communist state just twenty-three years ago.--------------------"Barbara" is a German film about people living in East Germany in 1980. Barbara is a female doctor, who was watched by the secret police.It is one of the greatest German films that I have ever seen. There is no exaggeration and omission in this film. Every element in it is necessary, and I couldn't find that any things were unnecessary.This film is very quiet, because there is no background music. That makes audience concentrated in every tiny sound. Barbara was always nervous about the secret police, so she got surprised when the doorbell started to ring, and the audience also got really surprised with the sound of the doorbell, and fully understood her emotion.Nina Hoss, as Barbara, was also great and attractive. She didn't overplay at all, but accurately expressed how Barbara felt in her mind. After seeing her performance, most actors and actress became to look unnatural.This film is a quiet, simple, and elegant. If you love films, I strongly recommend you to see it.