Barbara

This small and intriguing film about life in under the Stasi in 1980s East Germany is as solid and substantial as its titular lead character. Nina Hoss plays Barbara, a physician banished by officials to a small hospital in the remote countryside, with a combination of passion and paranoia tucked carefully underneath her cold and clever exterior. The film presents everyone of its small handful of characters as intelligent and fully human--from Barbara’s kind but calculating chief physician and potential lover, to the runaway teenager she attempts to care for, to the Stasi officer who hounds and punishes her.

The themes and political points made by writer/director Christian Petzold are never outright statements. As an audience, we know what Barbara can not know about the imminent fate of the communist party in East Germany which gives us an interesting perspective on her actions. The film presents a portrait of one of the people who, in their own small way, would go on to build a new and democratic, unified Germany.