Judging from the Silver Bear awarded at the Berlinale, this movie might make it into the international market, as Petzold and Hoss team up for another exercise in minimalist acting. The story of a pediatrician (Hoss), exiled to the provinces for some regime-related crime, who finds herself drawn to another local doctor (Zehrfeld) whilst simultaneously planning her escape to West Germany, is a superb study of responsibility and trust. The movie’s provinciality is also its strength: the beautifully shot, deceptively quiet landscape offsets other kinds of deception: those marking ordinary lives in a big-brother state.
Barbara | Directed by Christian Petzold (Germany, 2012) with Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld. Starts March 8