By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com
Remembering one’s unfortunate past in order to feel even better about one’s bright future is not an option for the United States. Not yet, anyway.
Germany, however, enjoys this positive growth from its divided past to its unified present. The simply titled “Barbara” is a poignant reminder of the uncertainties that plagued East Germany before the wall fell.
Christian Petzold sets “Barbara” in East Germany in 1980. The clock was ticking on Soviet domination, although the communists still held all the cards.
In Berlin, the doctor we know as Barbara (watchful Nina Hoss) has gotten a little too restless to suit the oppressive government. She may be eager for the end of communism, but they are not. So she is transferred to a rural health care center in an isolated town, where secret agencies watch her continuously.
Fully aware of the patient strategies these clandestine officials are capable of constructing, Barbara keeps her cards close to her chest. She is also a brilliant diagnostician, able to help her patients by listening to them carefully.
This talent quickly wins the admiration of her medical staff colleague Andre (Ronald Zehrfeld), who may or may not be assigned to watch her, as well.
So the film becomes a chess game of countermoves and feints, always testing for signs that might reveal (or betray) Andre’s true loyalty.
As Andre and Barbara both admire the other’s ability to play this game, their admiration grows into affection. But are they just pretending to show affection, hoping to trick the other into revealing true feelings? Or are they both sincere?
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