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Purely Joyful Movie!

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Doctor Barbara is sent to the backwaters of East Germany after having practiced medicine at a prestigious hospital in East Berlin. A form of punishment for having applied for a permit to leave the country. A serious, rather cold character except around her patients at the provincial hospital. Her superior is intrigued by her and her soulful beauty. A serious, thoughtful drama of life before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Well crafted film thanks to Petzold. Fine acting not only from the lead actors . An honest portrayal from the young troubled teenager who brings out the non-judgmental, compassionate side of Barbara. A fine film. Highly recommend.

Tightly plotted, emotionally involving and highly recommended. Also a subtler, less melodramatic portrayal of the East German surveillance state, IMHO, than the better known "Lives of Others." Great performances, especially by Nina Hoss as our tightly wrapped, chainsmoking heroine and Ronald Zehrfeld as a fellow doctor who's gotten himself in a similar fix (exiled to the windswept Baltic coast and kept under the thumb of the Stasi, or at least says he has). The depiction of the Stasi apparatus, from the vigilant concierge in Barbara's crappy apartment building to the grim-faced security chief, was pretty much as expected, though I was surprised that Barbara's lover, a prosperous-looking "Wessi" with a Mercedes and a driver, seemed to be able to cross over to the East with impunity. This is one of those films where every detail contributes to the overall tone without being obvious or didactic; even a charming scene where Barbara helps the driver's girlfriend, a cynical local girl, pick out a wedding ring from a catalogue seems to make a political point. The buildup to the final resolution is suitably suspenseful, but, as other reviewers have pointed out, the moment where Barbara smiles for the first time is the film's real climax. Didn't have the problems with the soundtrack or the subtitles that some Netflix viewers have reported.

"Barbara" is about a lady doctor who was sent away from Berlin to practice in a small town. She was very aloof and suspicious of everyone in her new hospital, including her friendly colleague, Dr. Andre. She kept to herself most of the time, riding a bike to and from work.Unknown to her co-workers, she is visited by some seedy characters, one of them a lady with gloves. She also does some mysterious side trips, burying money under rocks, and meeting a boyfriend for some secret romantic liaisons. Having no background as to what this film was all about, the first of the film felt like a spy thriller, with intense suspense being built up. I was really waiting for something explosive to happen by the second half. However, this whole film turned out to be a dramatic endeavor set during the 1980s when there was still a wall between East and West Germany. It was about the moral dilemma tearing Barbara up. On one side, she wants to defect and be with her boyfriend in the West. On the other hand, she is already getting used to her quiet countryside practice, especially getting attached to young troubled patients like Stella and Mario.So at the end, there is still suspense, albeit a quiet kind, which is still well worth staying around for. However the slow pace of the film, all talk with lack of action, may not sit well with impatient audiences.

Set in Communist East Germany in the early 1980s, cold war paranoia is in full view in Christian Petzold's Barbara, winner of the Silver Berlin Bear for Best Director at the Berlinale. In Barbara, Petzold has fashioned not only a superb character study but a film that illuminates the effects of oppression on the human psyche, an oppression that ended in Germany only with the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of East and West many years later. The film shows the East German security apparatus' (Stasi) use of intimidation and disorientation as tools in operating a system of control and surveillance directed at those suspected of opposing the GDR.Portrayed by Nina Hoss in a performance of remarkable nuance and authenticity, Barbara, an East Berlin doctor, has been exiled to a small clinic in the provinces after applying for an exit visa to visit her boyfriend in the West. She is a tall, stately, and attractive woman, yet taciturn and distant, her face filled with an indescribable sadness. Trying to serve her patients as best she can, she knows that she is under surveillance by the Stasi, particularly by Officer Klaus Schutz (Rainer Bock), who does not hesitate to conduct unannounced searches of Barbara's apartment, even her person, and whose presence in her life is all too visible.Not knowing whom to trust, thinking (perhaps rightly so) that her friends and colleagues may be police informants, Barbara's aloofness leads her colleagues to give her the nickname of "Berlin" to describe what they think is her big-city attitude. On the job, however, she does not allow her fears to get in the way of her professional responsibilities and her relationship with her patients shows her hidden warmth. Dr. André Reiser (Ronald Zehrfeld), a soft-looking, slightly heavy-set doctor, solicits her friendship and offers repeatedly to drive her home but she keeps him at arms length, suspicious of his possible connections.In spite of this tense atmosphere, Barbara manages to befriend Stella (Jasna Fritzi Bauer), a young patient who escaped from a work camp at Torgau. Correctly diagnosing her with Meningitis, a diagnosis that the other doctors had overlooked, she reads The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to her in the evening, a story of two people on the run. More tension is added when we see Barbara's surreptitious exchange of black market cigarettes and packets of money with people unknown. In a rapturous meeting with her West German lover Jorg (Mark Waschke) in a secluded forest area, she is given the choice of leaving the country with him, reassured that, because of his circumstances, she would no longer have to work.Barbara and her friend make plans, but her growing relationship with André and ties to young Stella become complicating factors. André's own story of how he ended up in the village only adds to her confusion and uncertainty. Barbara is an understated gem that never hits us over the head with its message but leaves no doubt about its implications. While the film depicts the circumstances in a particular country, it transcends its limitations to become a universal experience. A compelling and riveting film, it begins in resignation and ends in transformation.