// Presented as part of January's Teutonic Cinema Series //


Christian Petzold / 2012, Berlin, AFI Fest, BAFICI, Hawaii, Istanbul, Karlovy Vary, New York Film Festival, Nuremberg, NYT Critics' Pick, Telluride, Toronto, Valladolid / 105'

Barbara Wolff arrives in a small town in East Germany, having been transferred from Berlin's prestigious Charité hospital following an unspecified transgression. Consigned to the provinces, and under the constant threat of invasive checks by the GDR's secret police, Barbara goes to work each day at a small pediatric hospital and takes clandestine measures to meet her boyfriend from the West. The return of a woman far needier than her, and her growing kinship with a fellow doctor, however, complicate her plans for escape.
Enveloped in rich sensory textures and the mounting tension of quotidian life behind the Iron Curtain, Barbara methodically charts the internal psychological journey of a woman at the threshold of two worlds. Christian Petzold's fifth feature premiered at Berlin, where it won Best Director. Barbara was nominated in eight categories of the German Film Awards, winning Best Film, and is a New York Times Critics' Pick.