If there is one overriding motif of BARBARA, it is that a storm is approaching. Almost every exterior shot in Christian Petzold’s drama features howling winds that rustle the trees and hedgerows of a beautifully photographed rural German landscape.

Set in the 1980s in a small East German town, BARBARA follows our protagonist (Nina Hoss), a disgraced doctor who has tried – and failed – to flee to the West. Banished from Berlin, Barbara has to work in a hospital in a parochial province alongside Andre (Ronald Zehrfeld), a charming and sensitive doctor, who may or may not be working as a Stasi official. An atmosphere of professional respect and personal mistrust develops between the two. Barbara is still in contact with her lover in the West and hatches a plan to escape from the East. However, things are complicated when she treats a young runaway (Jasna Fritzi Bauer) and must decide where her loyalties lie.

Hoss’ Barbara is both rigidly aloof but also deeply sympathetic…

The chemistry between the two lead doctors is the highlight of this drama. Both actors create believable and tortured characters, who are reluctantly thrown together in their dreary village hospital. Hoss’ Barbara is both rigidly aloof but also deeply sympathetic; her sharp mannerisms gradually giving way to a softer underbelly as the film progresses. Zehrfeld’s Andre is a milder character, instantly likable but somewhat untrustworthy. The development of this relationship is intriguing and the film allows both actors to bring warmth to a film set during a sombre and unforgiving time.

BARBARA’s plot occasionally drags during the middle of the film – a late night hotel encounter halfway through is unnecessarily elongated by a character never seen again – but the film soon finds it feet again for the final act. Even if the metaphorical storm that is promised by the constant wind does not reach the dramatised heights that are anticipated, it is still a commendable film featuring two standout performances.

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