This tense story of love and subterfuge set in the world of The Lives of Others was a huge success in Germany and was selected as the German entry to the Oscars. Barbara is working at a prestigious university hospital in 1980 East Berlin, hoping to join her boyfriend in West Germany. Having applied for an exit visa, she is moved to a small hospital by the Baltic Sea where she realises that her two male colleagues are keeping the Stasi informed about her whereabouts. The situation is further complicated by the arrival of pregnant detention centre escapee Stella, who wishes to escape to the West.

With complex characters, the film does not portray Barbara’s dilemma as a simple choice between good and bad. Considered to be one of the leading directors of the so called Berlin School with ambitious independent films, Petzold uses a puritan cinema language. Addressing the history of East Germany, Petzold himself has said that it is difficult, when a country disappears leaving no traces behind (Der Spiegel).

Barbara is a film about the old Germany from one of the best directors working in the new, Christian Petzold. NYTimes

The weird oppression and seediness of the times is elegantly captured, and Hoss coolly conveys Barbara’s highly strung desperation. The Guardian