Barbara

3 comments on Hacker News

1. PositiveeternalbanApr 7, 2021

   That is a fine film. The protagonists are, however, not ordinary citizens.

   I'd highly recommend also watching Christian Petzold's Barbara [1]. It's an equally fine film, but it has a different focus.

   Here, the heroine is an ordinary physician (played by Nina Hoss), banished from Berlin to some province. The film captures the nightmare for the ordinary citizen of authoritarian police states, including the depressing fact that nearly anyone in your life could be informing on you. We also see how cooperating with the state authorities can get you privileges, such as better housing.

   [1]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2178941/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

   ~

   p.s.: this review is quite good. Almost felt like quoting it in full, as it is rather topical to the thread as well:

   https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2764284/

2. PositiveicebrainingJul 10, 2013

   Hollywood as a whole is full of assholes and I don't see what makes this one special.

   Agreed! Thankfully, there are many movies being produced out of Hollywood. Just from last year, I saw great films such as Amour (French-German-Austrian), Barbara (German) and Lore (Australian-German), which were better than anything I've seen from Hollywood in years.

3. PositivezalewJun 12, 2013

   [trying to say without spoilers]

   the inaccurate/ridiculous part is that he couldn't do what he did because every one of them had another agent(s) on them precisely to prevent such occurences. they spied on and controlled each other just like they did on citizens. other than that - great movie, and depiction of the strong influence such agencies had on personal lives (to make someone or destroy someone) is accurate.

   you can also check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_%282012_film%29 with a bit similar theme.