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IMDbPro

Barbara

  • 20122012
  • PG-13PG-13
  • 1h 45m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
15K
YOUR RATING
Barbara (2012)
Trailer for Barbara
Play trailer1:44
2 Videos
99+ Photos
Drama
A doctor working in 1980s East Germany finds herself banished to a small country hospital.A doctor working in 1980s East Germany finds herself banished to a small country hospital.A doctor working in 1980s East Germany finds herself banished to a small country hospital.
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
15K
YOUR RATING
    • Christian Petzold
    • Christian Petzold(screenplay)
    • Harun Farocki(collaborator on screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Nina Hoss
    • Ronald Zehrfeld
    • Rainer Bock
    • Christian Petzold
    • Christian Petzold(screenplay)
    • Harun Farocki(collaborator on screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Nina Hoss
    • Ronald Zehrfeld
    • Rainer Bock
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 51User reviews
    • 189Critic reviews
    • 86Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos2

    Barbara
    Trailer 1:44
    Watch Barbara
    Barbara
    Trailer 2:30
    Watch Barbara

    Photos110

    Nina Hoss in Barbara (2012)
    Nina Hoss in Barbara (2012)
    Nina Hoss and Ronald Zehrfeld in Barbara (2012)
    Nina Hoss and Ronald Zehrfeld in Barbara (2012)
    Ronald Zehrfeld in Barbara (2012)
    Christian Petzold and Ronald Zehrfeld in Barbara (2012)
    Nina Hoss in Barbara (2012)
    Barbara (2012)
    Barbara (2012)
    Barbara (2012)
    Nina Hoss in Barbara (2012)
    Barbara (2012)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Nina Hoss
    Nina Hoss
    • Barbara
    Ronald Zehrfeld
    Ronald Zehrfeld
    • André
    Rainer Bock
    Rainer Bock
    • Klaus Schütz
    Christina Hecke
    Christina Hecke
    • Assistenzärztin Schulze
    Claudia Geisler-Bading
    • Stationsschwester Schlösser
    • (as Claudia Geisler)
    Peter Weiss
    • Medizinstudent
    Carolin Haupt
    • Medizinstudentin
    Deniz Petzold
    • Angelo
    Rosa Enskat
    • Hausmeisterin Bungert
    Jasna Fritzi Bauer
    Jasna Fritzi Bauer
    • Stella
    Peer-Uwe Teska
    Peer-Uwe Teska
    • Kellner im Ausflugslokal
    Elisabeth Lehmann
    • Junge Kellnerin
    Mark Waschke
    Mark Waschke
    • Jörg
    Peter Benedict
    • Gerhard
    Thomas Neumann
    • Rentner am Auto
    Anette Daugardt
    • Mitarbeiterin Schütz
    Thomas Bading
    • Klavierstimmer
    Susanne Bormann
    Susanne Bormann
    • Steffi
      • Christian Petzold
      • Christian Petzold(screenplay)
      • Harun Farocki(collaborator on screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      The Torgau workhouse to which Stella is sent is the Torgau Juvenile Detention Centre. The Centre, which ran from 1964 to 1989, was for the "re-education" of young people aged 14 to 18. Inmates had committed no crimes, but were deemed to need education so that they could fit in with the norms of socialist life in East Germany.
    • Goofs
      Andre hands Barbara a cup of coffee, which she promptly drops. You see the shattered pieces of the cup on the floor, but no coffee.
    • Quotes

      André: Doctor Wolff will be working with us. She is from Berlin... from the Charite Hospital, and has decided...

      Assistenzärztin Schulze: We have introduced ourselves.

    • Connections
      Followed by Phoenix (2014)
    • Soundtracks
      Nocturne g-moll Opus 15 No. 3
      Composed by Frédéric Chopin

    User reviews51

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    7/10
    Definitely Worth It
    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.
    helpful•21
    3
    • JackCerf
    • Mar 8, 2013

    Details

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    • Release date
      • March 8, 2012 (Germany)
      • Germany
      • Official site (Germany)
      • Official site (Japan)
      • German
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Ahrenshoop, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany
    • Production companies
      • Schramm Film Koerner & Weber
      • Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)
      • ARTE
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 45 minutes
      • Color
      • Dolby Digital

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