Barbara (2012)

What was it like to live in the DDR? Christian Petzold's Barbara successfully brings home the existential dread among the citizens. Barbara (a very restrained Nina Hoss) has been incarcerated and now she tries to create a new life for herself. She is a doctor and works in a provincial town. Nobody knows her. Most of the colleagues find her repulsively aloof. She distrusts everybody. She knows perfectly well that she is being watched. Andre, a friendly type, is also working in the hospital. He also works for Stasi, but his true allegiance lies elsewhere. At her job, Barbara treats a girl with whom she develops a warm friendship. With this girl. we see her otherwise chilly appearance fall off. Barbara's lover lives in West Germany and sometimes she gets to meet her in secret places. We quickly learn that Barbara has other plans than to settle for a quiet rural life. The film skillfully examines the world of surveillance: most of all, it shows what bearing it has on people's ordinary social life. Petzold shows how a sense of distrust distorts almost everything. Barbara, with her steely face, is not a very likeable character (which is not a bad thing): she is distant, she has learnt how to hide all emotions - she has learnt self-control. Barbara is not a thriller, even though it has such an element. Its story about escape is told quietly, elegantly - the emphasis lies on a harrowing form of suspense that is felt also in the everyday scenes. In the more intense moments, every small detail has a terrible weight: the crunch of gravel, a wrong turn with the bicycle. In other words: this is a film where suspense is built into the social world itself, as a constant fear of imminent or more vaguely felt threats, rather than being a cheap cinematic effect. A merit of the film is that the dealings of the secret police are seen in their being embedded in a world in which people go about doing their everyday business: this makes the film truly frightening. I also admire the sudden moments of quiet beauty. In one scene, Barbary is biking on a craggy gravel road. The only thing we hear is the howling wind. The leaves are rustling and the birds are screaming.