Barbara (2012 film)
| Barbara | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Christian Petzold |
| Written by | Christian Petzold Harun Farocki |
| Starring |
Nina Hoss Ronald Zehrfeld Jasna Fritzi Bauer Mark Waschke Rainer Bock |
| Music by | Stefan Will |
| Cinematography | Hans Fromm |
| Edited by | Bettina Böhler |
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Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
| Box office | $3.1 million |
Barbara is a 2012 German drama film directed by Christian Petzold. The film competed at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012, where Petzold won the Silver Bear for Best Director. The film was selected as the German entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist.
East Germany in 1980: Barbara (Nina Hoss) is a physician who arrives for her first day at a small rural hospital near the Baltic Sea. She had been at the prestigious Charité hospital in East Berlin but, after she'd filed an "Ausreiseantrag" – an official request to leave East Germany – she had been incarcerated and transferred to the small town where she is still monitored by the Stasi. She is punished - for the hours in which they cannot find her - by searching her house, strip-searching and cavity-searching her.
In her new job, she works in pediatric surgery, a department led by chief physician André Reiser. Reiser eventually tells her a story (whose veracity she questions) of how he too had lost his job at a more prestigious hospital in Berlin – he was responsible for an accident with an incubator that left two premature infants blind. The Stasi had agreed to keep it quiet if he agreed to relocate to the provincial hospital and to work for them. So now Reiser reports on suspected people including Barbara.
Early on, when the police deliver Stella, a young runaway from a labour camp, to the hospital for the fourth time, Reiser thinks Stella is malingering. Barbara intervenes and orders removal of the restraints on the patient, readily diagnosing her with meningitis. During her recovery, Stella develops a strong attachment to Barbara, whose welcome bedside manner includes reading the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to her. Stella is pregnant and wants to raise the child. Wanting to escape from the country and to have her child in a new land, she implores Barbara to take her with her. However, they cannot find grounds for keeping Stella longer and soon she is returned against her will to the labour camp.
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