A FILM BY CHRISTIAN PETZOLD THE MATCH FACTORY PRESENTS ASCHRAMM FILM KOERNER&WEBER PRODUCTIONIN COPRODUCTION WITH ZDF ANDARTE ‘BARBARA’ WITHNINA HOSS RONALD ZEHRFELD JASNA FRITZI BAUER MARK WASCHKE RAINER BOCK CHRISTINA HECKE ROSA ENSKAT SUSANNE BORMANN PETER BENEDICT THOMAS NEUMANN KIRSTEN BLOCK ET. AL. DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY HANS FROMM BVK EDITOR BETTINA BÖHLER PRODUCTION DESIGN K.D. GRUBER COSTUME DESIGN ANETTE GUTHER MAKE UP BARBARA KREUZER ALEXANDRA LEBEDYNSKI SOUND ANDREAS MÜCKE-NIESYTKA SCRIPT ASSISTANT PRODUCTION SOUND MIX MARTIN STEYER MUSICSTEFAN WILL CASTINGSIMONE BÄR CONSULTANT HARUN FAROCKI DIRECTOR IRES JUNG MANAGER DORISSA BERNINGER COMMISSIONING EDITORS CAROLINE VON SENDEN ANNE EVEN ANDREAS SCHREITMÜLLER PRODUCER FLORIAN KOERNER VON GUSTORF MICHAEL WEBER WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY CHRISTIAN PETZOLD FUNDED BY MEDIENBOARD BERLIN-BRANDENBURG BKM FFA DFFF WORLD SALESTHE MATCH FACTORY Nina Hoss (Barbara) BARBARA A Film by Christian Petzold Barbara Nina Hoss Casting Simone Bär Andre Ronald Zehrfeld Script Consultant Harun Farocki Stella Jasna Fritzi Bauer Assistant Director Ires Jung Jörg Mark Waschke Production Manager Dorissa Berninger Schütz Rainer Bock Producer Florian Koerner von Gustorf Michael Weber Director of Photography Hans Fromm BVK Written & Directed by Christian Petzold Editor Bettina Böhler Production Design K.D. Gruber Costume Design Anette Guther A Schramm Film Koerner&Weber Production in coproduction Make Up Barbara Kreuzer with ZDF and ARTE. Funded by Medienboard Berlin-Branden- Alexandra Lebedynski burg, BKM, FFA, DFFF. World Sales THE MATCH FACTORY Sound Andreas Mücke-Niesytka Sound Mix Martin Steyer Music Stefan Will D 2012 | 105 min | 24fps | 35mm / DCP | 1:1,85 | Dolby Digital 2 Ronald Zehrfeld (Andre), Rainer Bock (Schütz) DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT In the films of recent years, East Germany has often appeared emptiness of a bare backyard, in the cramped confines of a for- quite desaturated. No colors, no wind, only the gray of border mica kitchen. It’s never a backdrop, but more of a spatial experi- crossings and the fatigued faces, much like those of the bleary- ence where people love, argue and become silent. And this eyed passengers on the sleeper inter-zonal trains at Gera’s rail- atmosphere thick with loving, arguing, and silence just sticks to way station. everything and remains hanging in the air and on the walls. The past never passes but extends far into our present. We didn’t want to film a portrait of an oppressed nation and then juxtapose it with love as this innocent, pure and liberating force. We wanted to capture on film that specific space between people, We didn’t want any symbols. You just end up decoding them and with everything that has built up, everything that had made them what’s left is what you knew all along. so mistrustful, everything they trust, reject and accept. We watched several films in preparation. One of the films that During the rehearsals, one of the actresses who had wanted to deeply impressed us was TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT by Howard leave East Germany at the end of the Seventies, using the excuse Hawks. Two lovers, Bacall and Bogart, suspiciously eyeing each of a tour theater performance in the West to flee, recounted how other, who cheat and lie, with secret police all around them and she had accepted dinner invitations knowing she would not be so constantly forced to speak between the lines. Strangely there for them. She would be gone, forever. And this terrible lo- enough though, they can both handle it and they enjoy watching neliness that remains, because you will never return and the life each other deal with the situation: the elegance, the intelligence, you had will have disappeared. The famous Anna Segher’s line: the precise skirmishes of their dialogues, as though seemingly “When you lose your past, you won’t have a future.” She still ignited by the censored and controlled world around them. You feels it in her bones, she revealed, to this very day. clearly see how circumstances can produce new types of people who kiss, speak and look differently. (Christian Petzold) Another film that impressed us was Fassbinder’s THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS. The East Germany of the Fifties is so present in this film: in the split rear window of a VW Bully, in the echoing 3 SYNOPSIS Summer, 1980. Barbara, a doctor, has applied for an exit visa from the GDR (East Germany). Now, as punishment, she has been transferred from Berlin to a small hospital out in the country, far from everything. Jörg, her lover from the West, is already planning her escape. Barbara waits, keeping to herself. The new apartment, the neighbors, summertime, the countryside – none of that means anything to her. Working as a pediatric surgeon under her new boss Andre, she is attentive when it comes to the patients, but quite distanced toward her colleagues. Her future, she feels, will begin later. But Andre confuses her. His confidence in her professional abili- ties, his caring attitude, his smile. Why does he cover for her when she helps the young runaway Sarah? Does he have an as- signment to keep track of her? Is he in love? But as the day of her planned escape quickly approaches, Barbara starts to lose control. Over herself, her plans, over love. ABOUT THE FILM Christian Petzold’s BARBARA is a story about people who meet in a state of high alert; about a truth that only exists because of a lie, and a love that is wary of itself; and about the freedom to leave and the freedom to stay. The impressive ensemble includes Nina Hoss (YELLA – Berlinale 2007 Best Actress, JERICHOW), Ronald Zehrfeld (IN FACE OF THE CRIME), Jasna Fritzi Bauer (AT ELLEN’S AGE), Mark Waschke (HA- BERMANN) and Rainer Bock (THE WHITE RIBBON). The team in- cludes Petzold’s long-standing collaborators Kade Gruber (Production Design), Anette Guther (Costume Design), Andreas Mücke Niesytka (Sound), Bettina Böhler (Editor) and Hans Fromm (Director of Photography). BARBARA is the eighth collaboration between the Berlin-based production company Schramm Film Koerner & Weber and Chris- tian Petzold. A SPECIAL FORM OF LOVE Christian Petzold, Nina Hoss and Ronald Zehrfeld about working on BARBARA Before shooting began you had extensive reading rehear- amongst the people? Is this person part of the system that exists sal with all the actors. How does that work? between people? Which is why I found it interesting to see for example French Connection, a film the never stands on the side Christian Petzold:A few weeks before shooting started, we met of power. We then very quickly spoke about the details, going with the entire ensemble. On the first day, to somehow get over the characters, locations, smells and memories. started, I read out a text in which I describe the characters. We then watched films such as a love scene from a Chabrol film. In Mr. Zehrfeld, when you hear the description of the charac- “Barbara” I was concerned with several questions: Who is telling ter, does that change your perception of the role? the story of the film? Where is this person positioned? Is this per- son removed from the plot looking onto it from above like a sur- Ronald Zehrfeld: No. I had already had an idea about the cha- veillance camera, or is he standing right in the middle of it racter after reading the script. And then it’s really about what I Ronald Zehrfeld (Andre), Claudia Geissler (Krankenschwester), Nina Hoss (Barbara), Christina Hecke (Ärztin) can bring out and how I can make it visible. The first reading re- of us drove out together to visit the locations and motifs where hearsals were great for the extensive way we explored the situa- the film is set. tions, the degree of detail and color and tone we used to describe the images that existed between the characters. Filming Locations Christian Petzold: I was somewhat afraid of you, Ronald, be- cause I perceive you as a person who is very grounded in your Christian Petzold: I felt it was important that the hospital in the East German past. Your life experiences are rooted there and film was a real hospital that was accurately furnished in a 1980 you went to school there, whereas I had only been there to visit look down to the last fine detail. When we saw it we were so- because almost all of my relatives still lived there. My parents mewhat shocked at how different hospitals are today with their had fled the GDR. For me East Germany had always been a pro- high flexibility and their outsourcing. In this hospital you had this jection space, whereas for you it was a living space. feeling… it was like something out of an Astrid Lindgren novel. We – the actors and I – met regularly to talk about the day in the Nina Hoss: I found it exciting to listen to the actors who came staff break room that the nurses in the film hang out in to smoke, from the East talk about what had happened to them and how listen to the radio and read the newspaper… It was like doctors it was for them to be there. One of the actresses who had fled and nurses planning the day’s schedule: “First we run the drainage East Germany had had a very similar experience to Barbara’s. She procedure, and then comes Nina’s long monologue”. That’s how was on a tour performance with her theater company and she it felt sometimes for me. I mean, you were all anyway very well knew that she would have to lie, the way Barbara lies to Andre.