Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Barbara" is a German movie from 3 years ago that runs for 105 minute (with credits). The writer and director is Christian Petzold and the lead actress is Nina Hoss. these 2 have worked together on many occasions already. And the male lead Ronald Zehrfeld actually appeared again as the lead actor in Petzold's and Hoss' recent "Phoenix", so he is getting used to it as well. Talking about the actors, there is nothing wrong here. Hoss may be the one German actress who is in most demand right now abroad as well as her recent turn in "Homeland" proves. Still, I must say I cannot see great diversity in her performances. It feels sometimes like she always plays the same character with same face expressions especially. Guess she found her niche. Zehrfeld has made his way into Germany's most respected actors and is also among the most successful from his age group right now. Same goes for Jasna Fritzi Bauer, who only plays a supporting character here, bus has played lead roles in several German films recently as well. Definitely on the rise. And there is nothing really that needs to be said about Rainer Bock, successful and lauded in Germany and abroad for decades.This film here was Germany's submission to the Academy Awards that year, but it did not get in. The topic is (like so many times before) life in the GDR in the 1980s. However, this focuses on a chapter that has not been done so many times so far, which is professional discrimination of people who do not act in accordance with the political system. And that description fits Nina Hoss' character here. She is a doctor who gets send to a small hospital and in this film here we see her interactions with other doctors, patients and nurses. There is major political background here, but it's not the crucial story. It is really more about the character's, their personal fate and tragedies and how they interact with each other. I must say I enjoyed this film occasionally, but as a whole I hoped for more. I probably prefer the previously mentioned "Phoenix" when it comes to Petzold, Hoss and Zehrfeld. And I also prefer "Die innere Sicherheit" and maybe some other Petzold films. I am not saying this was a bad watch, it definitely wasn't. But I found it difficult to feel with the characters in this very bleak and sterile environment and movie. There is emotion in here, but it's almost never really visible and pretty subtle from start to finish. All in all, a decent little movie, but I am not sure if it's deserving of all the accolades and awards it was nominated for. Best is you give it a watch and decide for yourself.

paul2001sw-1 This brilliant German film explores two fundamental questions: whether it is possible to collaborate with a fundamentally oppressive state, and the acute degree of personal loneliness felt by those who cannot, and whom the state thereby treats as its enemies. The mundane depersonalisation of life under the Stasi is captured much more acutely, it seems to me, in this story than in the more acclaimed 'The Lives of Others'; that the leading collaborator is arguably a decent and attractive person, albeit one who has made different choices to the admirable but not wholly likable heroine, adds subtlety and humanity to the overall portrait of society. Both protagonists are excellent in their roles; the camera-work captures the underlying feelings of alienation in a way that reminded me of early Kieslowski. 'Barbara' is by turns bleak, poetic, emotional and thought-provoking: it deserves to be more widely known.

Hot Potato At first I just enjoyed the movie and would have rated it decently. Then it ends! The movie had quite patiently laid out a plot with many questions not yet answered, in fact including the main factor indicating of what created all this woman's circumstances. The story proceeds and develops creating more questions than answers. We slowly learn a bit about each character and a deep shell they are in, but often not the cause, the Communist system they live in. Which you suspect is all just preparing you for the twist and reveal at the end of the movie, illuminating all. It seems to be unwinding and a sub plot ends, adding a few more unanswered questions, much is hanging in the air and she unexpectedly returns to work. Then it ends! -- And you wonder ???Then you realize it was not the plot the director was trying to tell, he had pulled you in with no intention of satisfying the plot. Then you think, ah yes! Character and development, they did a wonderful job of that, although they really didn't change much as you would expect in a love story, but you learned who they may be, bit by bit, as the system forced them to not expose character. They were just remote cogs in the cruel bureaucratic wheel as it turned.You figure again, maybe not, as you really only learn wee bits and pieces about them, more questions than answers, but see the deep, sharp, cold, forced personality adaptations and voids caused by the political system in those times, which we actually see little of in the movie, although much hinges on it. Maybe it's that he was trying to tell? Ah! you see it and realize you haven't enjoyed a movie that much in some time. You didn't need all the necessities. It had all it needed, including no last line. Rich.Oh yes, wherever they made this movie it was beautiful.

secondtake 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.