Cork Cine Club presents the Cold War thriller Barbara, (Germany), on Thursday 7 March at 8pm in St. John’s Central College.
Masterfully controlled and totally absorbing, this elegant drama expertly details the costs of telling and withholding the truth, and captures the human and political dilemmas of life in oppressive 1980s East Germany.
Director Christian Petzold’s film centres on Barbara, a doctor (Nina Hoss) banished to a small town in East Germany as punishment for applying for an exit visa. She is torn between the promise of escape across the border and her growing love for a colleague — who may be planning to betray her to the secret police.
Barbara remains icy and withdrawn around her colleagues, particularly with the lead physician, who is hiding a secret of his own. With her patients, however, the guarded doctor is kind, warm, and protective, even risking her own safety for one of her charges. But as the day of her planned escape quickly approaches, Barbara starts to lose control, over herself, her plans and over love.
Director: Christian Petzold. Germany, 2012. 105 minutes. Cert: 12A. Language: German (subtitled).
Our next film is Searching for Sugar Man (Thu 14 March) which won the 2013 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Other Cork Cine Club films to be shown in St. John’s Central College on Thursdays at 8pm are SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN (documentary – UK) on 14 March; THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD (Albania) on 21 March; THE GIANTS (Belgium) on 11 April; A SIMPLE LIFE (China) on 18 April.
Please note there are no films on 28 March or 4 April. Shorts may be shown before the feature film.
See www.corkcineclub.com, Facebook and Twitter for trailers, reviews and more. Tickets, €8.50/€7 (includes Cine Club membership), are sold at the door. Foreign language films are subtitled.
Cork Cine Club is supported by access>CINEMA, a resource organization for regional cultural cinema, and by The Arts Council of Ireland.
