Barbara Wolff is destined to be alone.
Because it was in the period when East and West Germany split in 1980. She was frequently monitored because she had dreams in her heart. She was forced to transfer from the highest medical school in Berlin to a small town on the Baltic Sea. The lover who is far away in West Germany is trying to arrange her to get to West Germany by smuggling. Only she knew this secret, and of course, it was difficult to hide it from the East German secret police. The police not only monitored her everywhere, but also came to search her residence from time to time. What's even more outrageous is that she has to face the wall, take off her clothes, spread her legs, and perform a physical examination, for fear that she will miss a little bit of clues, it is really difficult for these secret police.
It's just that no matter how close the tracking is, there are omissions. Barbara, who has suffered a lot of personality humiliation, can still meet her lover from West Germany and discuss how to smuggle. She hid the money in a big rock under the huge cross at the corner of the road. The young and beautiful Barbara walks on her bike to and from the hospital and her residence every day, never going out casually, let alone making friends. This inevitably attracted many strange eyes.
The only person approaching her was Andre Reese, a new colleague from the hospital. He was also "delegated" from the Berlin University Hospital due to a medical accident. At first, Barbara couldn't help defending him everywhere, making him inaccessible. It seemed that Andre could sense the depression in her heart. When he went to work the first day, the policeman Klaus told him: "She is a perverse person..." The police's reminder, on the contrary, aroused Andre's greater interest. Among them, there was curiosity and a love of sight. Admiration.
One day the police sent a beautiful girl named Stella. Barbara felt very sympathetic to her. Only Barbara could walk into her painful heart. Barbara reads Mark Twain's novels for her. The long-lost sunshine gradually shone in. But what's worse is that Stella was raped and became pregnant in the "Torgau" known as the socialist experimental camp. Barbara didn't want her to be sent to the concentration camp of "Torgau" again. Andre reluctantly said: "At most, she can only stay in the hospital for two or three more days." The fact is that Stella was quickly taken to "Torgau" by the police. Stella took her pregnant and engaged in high-intensity labor in "Torgau". When people noticed the parachuting in the air, she took the opportunity to escape, but her thigh was cut with a barbed wire. Poor Stella, where can she escape?
Barbara's secret smuggling plan is finally set for this Friday night. Thinking of meeting her lover who loves her so much and living a free and peaceful life from now on, she was both excited and uneasy. And it was she who was on duty that day and needed to change shifts with Andre. Andre also readily agreed. Just at this time, a guy who attempted suicide by jumping from a building needed surgery. Barbara wanted to tell Andre in time because of the responsibility and the guy's condition could not be delayed. It just so happened that Andre was not in the hospital and had already gone out of the clinic. The family that went to the doctor was the policeman Klaus's. When she found it, Klaus stared at her and said that Andre was upstairs. Barbara hurried upstairs and saw Andre was helping a woman inject morphine. It turns out that this woman is Klaus's wife who is suffering from cancer, and the injection of morphine only relieves her pain. In such an authoritarian country, even the secret police who are acting on orders have the pain of not speaking to outsiders.
After a busy schedule, Andre brought Barbara to his residence, cooked for her, and talked with her. How did he know that she was going to fly far away. The painful and tangled Barbara, feeling Andre's deep love everywhere, still hugged him, and instantly rejected him.
Barbara returned to her residence tiredly. When she was packing her things and preparing to leave, she did not expect the door to be knocked again. She thought it was a policeman. After opening the door with almost fainting pressure, she found it was a panicked Strella. After Barbara cleaned and disinfected her wounds, she carried her back downstairs. The darkness of the night makes one's heart gripping hard to let go. Barbara is riding her bicycle to the beach.
The cold wind was bitter, and Strella leaned weakly on her back. Barbara's tension can be said to have reached the extreme. The most feared is the police vehicle that burst out suddenly. Fortunately, I got to the beach. The man who fetched her was riding a kayak to the shore against the big waves. Barbara gave the man the fee and got on the raft with Stella on his back. The man paddled the raft and carried Stella away, while Barbara stayed on the shore of East Germany forever.
At this time, Andre came to Barbara’s residence and found that the door was not closed and there was no one. The book "The Barefoot Doctor" he gave her was left on the coffee table, and the policeman Klaus rushed coldly. Said: "She will not come back again." Andre asked: "Did you shut her down?" Klaus did not answer.
When the painful Andre returned to the hospital and was full of sorrow, Barbara quietly came to him, put on a white coat without saying a word, and continued her work as a "barefoot doctor" in the small town. Andre suddenly saw that under her cold appearance, there was actually a warm woman's heart.
This is the film "Barbara" (produced in 2012) that won the "Silver Bear Award" and "Best Director Award" at the 62nd Berlin Film Festival, directed by German director Christian Petzold. Barbara is played by Nina Hoth and Andre is played by Ronald Zehfeld. Barbara's tranquility, elegance and loneliness are just like the film's style, restrained in the East German scene thirty years ago. East and West Germany, like a fastened kaleidoscope, finally allowed different fragments to fuse together peacefully, leading to a colorful world. The free umbrella flower can unfold like ten thousand flowers under the clear sky.
2012, 11, 28
Selected from the film review collection "Invisible Movies" published by Haitian Publishing House
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