November 14, 2012
By Chuck Grahame, TucsonStage.com
After an 8-day run of exemplary films spanning a full range of emotions and cinema styles, the Loft Film Fest closes Thursday with an 8 p.m. screening of Germany’s Oscar submission this year for Best Foreign Language Film, “Barbara.”
BUT DON’T FORGET, the Loft’s very own 40th birthday party and 10th anniversary as a nonprofit also starts Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the Lodge on the Desert, near the theater at 306 N. Alvernon Way. Tickets to party are $10. Festival passholders get in free. Celebrate until 7:30 p.m. then slide back on over to the theater.
“Alps,” an absurdist dramedy from Greece, also plays Thursday evening (in the brand new third theater). No, it’s not about Swiss mountaineers. It’s about a small group of friends who hire themselves out as actors who play surrogates for deceased loved ones. So if your dad dies, you can hire one of the “Alps” to walk around the house pretending to be your dad for a few hours, to help with the transition of losing a loved one.
But more about the extremely serious “Barbara,” filmed with subtitles and set in East Germany during 1980 when the Stasi were in full command. No film could more accurately typify the art house film audience.
Slowly paced and filled with understated emotions, this picture by Christian Petzold features Nina Hoss as Barbara, a Berlin doctor reassigned to a remote rural hospital in East Germany after she applied for an exit visa to West Germany.
Trusting no one, she remains aloof from the hospital staff until normal medical crises touch her humanitarian heart and she can’t help pitching in to save the lives of others.
This opens her to conversations with the head surgeon, Andre (Ronald Zehrfeld), who seems very attentive and concerned for her welfare. Suspicious that Andre is assigned to watch her, she confronts him and it turns out, he is cooperating with the Stasi.
But more ethical conflicts are on the way, leading to a wrenching ending nine years before the Berlin wall would fall.
The Loft Film Festival runs through Nov. 15. For complete details and ticket prices, www.loftfilmfest.com
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