- A doctor working in 1980s East Germany finds herself banished to a small country hospital.
- In 1980s East Germany, Barbara is a Berlin doctor banished to a country medical clinic for applying for an exit visa. Deeply unhappy with her reassignment and fearful of her co-workers as possible Stasi informants, Barbara stays aloof, especially from the good natured clinic head, Andre. Instead, Barbara snatches moments with her lover as she secretly prepares to defect one day. Despite her plans, Barbara learns more about her life that puts her desires and the people around her in a new light. With her changing perspective, Barbara finds herself facing a painful moral dilemma that forces her to choose what she values.—Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
- During the Cold War, in 1980, Barbara Wolff, a dedicated medical doctor, after filing an official request to obtain the necessary exit visa to leave East Germany, she is incarcerated and transferred to a small paediatric clinic in the countryside. Alone and with no circle of friends, reluctantly, she arrives for duty in a place so very different from her reputable Charite teaching hospital in East Berlin, constantly monitored by the men of the Stasi secret police who lose no opportunity to harass her both physically and mentally. Under those circumstances, Barbara's supervising physician André, an honest and caring man, will attempt to bridge the gap and come closer, however, in a time of conspiracy and suspicion, winning her trust is almost futile. Eventually, when Stella, a young pregnant woman who escaped a hard labour camp, desperately pleads for help in order to escape from the country, Barbara's plan to defect to Denmark and reunite with her West German lover will be reevaluated. Between an intolerable pressure and the moral obligation, will Barbara finally manage to pursue the dream of liberty in Denmark?—Nick Riganas
- Set in 1980, director Christian Petzold's latest work centres on a doctor (Nina Hoss) exiled to a small town from East Berlin as punishment for applying for an exit visa from the GDR (East Germany). Planning to flee for Denmark with her boyfriend, Barbara remains icy and withdrawn around her colleagues, particularly with the lead physician (Ronald Zehrfeld), who is hiding a secret of his own. With her patients, however, the guarded doctor is kind, warm, and protective, even risking her own safety for one of her charges. But as the day of her planned escape quickly approaches, Barbara starts to lose control, over herself, her plans and over love. Masterfully controlled and totally absorbing, this Cold War thriller expertly details the costs of telling and withholding the truth
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content