Barbara (German, DVD)

German drama set in pre-Berlin Wall East Germany in 1980. Nina Hoss stars as Barbara, a young doctor starting a new job at a small hospital in the provinces. It transpires she has been transferred there by the government as punishment for applying for an exit visa from the GDR. Her aim is to escape to the West to join her boyfriend Jörg (Mark Waschke), who has been planning her escape via the Baltic Sea. Barbara, detached and self-contained, keeps her head down and gets on with her work, despite being subjected to random home checks and intrusive body searches. However, as the weeks go by, she becomes both beguiled and confused by the attentions of her new boss, Andre (Ronald Zehrfeld). Can she trust him, or has he been assigned to keep tabs on her?