Jiri Severa This is a little gem of a film with the rarest touches and subtlety. Set in 1980, its protagonist, Barbara, is a physician sent to work in a clinic in the North of East Germany as a punishment for applying for exit visa to the West. She is being closely monitored by the Stasi (communist secret police) and reports on her are written from the hospital by a young head doctor. Having decided to escape East Germany to be with her lover in Denmark and quickly figuring out her superior André has been assigned to spy on her, Barbara is testy and cool to his advances, as she is overcome by bitterness to the regime that mistreats and humiliates her. But in time she discovers André is a strong, gentle, sincere character and that his dedication to medicine matches her own. She becomes torn between her desire to leave and the suddenly erupting strong feelings for him. The acting by the mercurial Nina Hoss (as Barbara) quiet, confident Ronald Zehrfeld (as André) is exceptional and some of their interactions show brilliant edge and deep reading of character. Well worth seeing how this plays out.

blanche-2 After seeing the magnificent film, Phoenix, I watched another film directed by Christian Petzold, with two stars from Phoenix, Nina Hoss and Ronald Zehrfeld.Barbara (Hoss) is a doctor in East Germany in the 1980s. She was working in Berlin but when she applied for an exit visa to the west, she was sent to a country clinic. There she is resentful, bored, and under surveillance by the Stasi, who come to her home, search it completely, and strip search her all the time. Also, in such a small environment, there's a good chance everyone is a Stasi spy and reporting her.Barbara's dream is to escape to the west, and she has a boyfriend who comes over from time to time to see her and sends her money surreptitiously, which she hides under a rock.The doctor with whom she works, Andre (Zehrfeld) seems to like her, but like everything else, she has to be careful whom she talks to and what she says, as she can trust no one. There is an attraction between the two, however.Barbara is a compassionate and wonderful doctor, interacting well with her patients, in particular a young woman, Stella, who is facing a crisis and is dependent upon her for help.Beautiful film with an incredible atmosphere - Barbara bikes home and to where she hides the money - a beautiful setting, with the wind blowing - the whole atmosphere is one of isolation and chill. She is tentative with her landlady saying only what needs to be said -- anyone could be spying on her. She is advised by Andre not to act so arrogant with the other hospital workers, who do smile at her and are happy to have her sit at their table for lunch.This is a story about the desire for freedom - first of all, what is it? Is it in the mind? Is it physical? Can you be free anywhere and/or captive anywhere? Barbara finds her attitudes changing and her thinking readjusting.A wonderful film from a real master. Hoss is more beautiful here than in Phoenix, of course, and playing a very different character. She is a marvelous actress. Zehrfeld too is different here - since Phoenix was my first time seeing them, it was great to see more of their range.A thought-provoking film.

Tweekums This film is centred on East German doctor; the eponymous Barbara. She used to work at the prestigious Berlin hospital but has been transferred to a small rural hospital for reasons that aren't immediately obvious but it is clear that she has done something that the regime didn't approve of. While working at the hospital it becomes clear that the Stasi are keeping close tabs on her; her boss clearly knows more about her than one would expect and when she disappears from their surveillance she gets a less than subtle visit from the Stasi. We later learn that she was punished for applying for permission to leave the country and she hasn't given up her plans to leave.We see that she is a caring and competent doctor; just the sort the hospital needs… she diagnoses a case of meningitis that others have missed and later realises another patient needs an urgent operation. During this time she grows professionally closer to her superior Dr André Reiser despite suspecting that he is informing for the dreaded Stasi. As time passes and the day of her escape to the west approaches she must decide between freedom in the West and staying at the hospital where her skills are needed.Having seen 'The Lives of Others' I was expecting another grim urban setting but this was set in beautiful countryside; something that contrasts with Barbara's basic apartment and the under-equipped hospital where she works. The story is told with a surprisingly light touch given the subject matter; the scenes of Barbara cycling through the countryside are positively bucolic. Nina Hoss carries the story as Barbara but is ably supported by Ronald Zehrfeld who played Dr Reiser and Rainer Bock who plays the sinister Stasi Officer Klaus Schütz. While there is little actual violence there is the feeling that there is a real danger for Barbara… especially when the Stasi search her flat and more disturbingly her body. The dilemma of whether she will try to escape or not is nicely depicted and her final decision is depicted in a believable way. Overall I think this German drama is well worth watching; it may not be fast paced but it is still fairly gripping.

JackCerf The story is set in East Germany in 1980, when it looked like Communism would last forever. Central character is Dr. Barbara Wolff, played by the classically beautiful blonde Nina Hoss, who I've previously seen in A Woman In Berlin. Dr. Wolff was a fast track young doctor at the Charite, the big teaching hospital in Berlin, before she fell in love with a West German businessman and applied for an exit visa. That got her a short spell in prison for ingratitude to the workers and farmers who paid for her medical education, together with a transfer to a one horse town in Mecklenburg, where she seems to be the second doctor in a two doctor pediatric clinic. We know all this because, as she is getting off the bus, the local Stasi man is going through her file with Andre, the head doctor at the clinic. Andre is what they used to call an Inoffiziale Mitarbeiter, or unofficial cooperator. We find out why later on. He's also an attractive, shambling 30 something bachelor in a kind of teddy bear way, a skilled, dedicated doctor with a good bedside manner, and, notwithstanding his work as an informer, a pretty decent guy by the standards of the time and place.Barbara twigs immediately that Andre's an informer when he offers her a lift home from work on the first day. As they drive through an intersection in his piece of crap Trabant, she says, "you were supposed to ask me which way to turn, but then, you already know where I live." She is resentful, understandably so, and standoffish, which the clinic staff put down to stuck up Berlin attitude. That may have something to do with the open surveillance by the Stasi guy and regular searches of her apartment, complete with strip searches by a female agent. But Barbara is also a first class doctor who takes a real interest in her patients. Andre is quietly smitten -- if you've seen Hoss you'll know why -- and keeps chipping away at her resistance. Despite knowing who else he works for, she can't help responding.What neither Andre nor the Stasi agent know is that Barbara is contriving to meet her Wessi boyfriend when he's in the East on business, and they're scheming to smuggle her out. He's crazy about her, even saying that he'd move East if she wants, but there are slight intimations that life in the West with him might not be exactly as she's dreamed of. In any event, there's a lot of sneaking about, and Hoss has a good line in tense body language and over the shoulder glances. Everybody knows everybody's business in a small town anyway, and in a small town in Mecklenburg, your landlady, your co-workers, or anyone you pass on the street could be an informer. Complications ensue, involving Andre, the escape plan, and Barbara's obligations to two young patients in whom she has taken a special interest. I won't tell you how they play out, except that nothing goes quite as expected. The movie gives you a very good sense of a society in which everyone is compromised in some way, trust and intimacy are not really possible, but life has to go on nevertheless. It's not as showy as The Lives of Others, but it gives a better sense of what everyday life was like in the German Democratic Republic, where it has been estimated that there was one Stasi employee for every 165 citizens and one informer for every 6.5.