GERMAN writer/director Christian Petzold’s film, exploring the dilemma of personal satisfactions competing with moral obligations, has few of the elements that automatically proclaim box office success. But that’s no reason not to see it and tell friends.

Barbara (Nina Hoss) is a GP who, to be with a lover, has applied for an exit visa. In East Germany before reunification, that is a no-no. To ponder her transgression, she gets sent to work in a small rural hospital. The Stasi periodically turn over her apartment in search of incriminating material.

By telling Barbara’s story without haste, Petzold enhances its tensions. She has a cash stash hidden under a roadside boulder. Her lover has given her details of the plan to collect her from a deserted beach and take her to Denmark. But the best-laid plans, as Robbie Burns said, “gang aft agley”.

Crucial to the plot is teenager Stella, delivered to the hospital by police, treated by Barbara and her colleague Andre (Ronald Zerhfeld). As invitations to reverse our understanding of previous moments glide through the plot, we must discover Barbara’s responses by implication more than direct declaration.

A nominee for best foreign language film in this year’s Oscars, “Barbara” delivers its story with style and dramatic power. The film’s entertainment values may not follow convention, but they are certainly there.

At Palace Electric