Co-presented with Telescope Film

KINO! Film Salon is a monthly online club to discuss films from Germany.
 
How it works: Each month, we choose a German film currently available to stream on U.S. platforms, watch it independently, and come together for a hosted conversation with other fans of German cinema.

In our last session of the year, we’ll discuss Christian Petzold’s tense psychological drama Barbara (2012), co-written by Petzold and legendary German experimental filmmaker Harun Farocki. Petzold regular Nina Hoss plays Barbara, a doctor in 1980s East Berlin whose application for a visa to leave for the West is met with an isolating punishment: she is transferred to a small pediatric hospital in the countryside where she is constantly monitored by the secret police. Her new colleague Andre (Two to One’s Ronald Zehrfeld) appears to be a gentle ally, but as she begins to plan an escape, she struggles to shake her suspicions that everyone—including Andre—is spying on her. KINO! Film Salon host Jim Kolmar writes, “Hoss is characteristically luminous and enigmatic, and Petzold’s narrative unfolds with elegance, and his superficial concerns function as a lure to the meatier themes that simmer below the surface. Our task as audience is to let them emerge at their own pace and reward us with a richly cinematic experience.”

Barbara world premiered at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for Best Director. It was selected as Germany’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards and was runner-up for Best Fiction Film at the 2012 German Film Awards.

Hosted by Jim Kolmar

Jim programs for SXSW and Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival, and was a founding committee member of Festival Internacional de Cine Tulum (FICTU). He has participated in numerous international festival juries, panels, and committees.

KINO! Film Salon is a production of Telescope Film, in partnership with the German Film Office.

Barbara
Dir. Christian Petzold
Germany, 2012
105 minutes
With Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Mark Waschke, Rainer Bock