Berlin 2012: Adopt Film Acquires All U.S. Rights to Winner 'Barbara'

Adopt Films continued its buying spree at the  Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday with the acquisition of all U.S. rights to Christian Petzold's Cold War drama Barbara.

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The deal was finalized just hours before Barbara earned Petzold the Silver Bear for best director. Nina Hoss stars in the film, marking her fifth collaboration with the German filmmaker.

Jeff Lipsky's Adopt Films is planning a December 2012 release in the U.S., concurrent with an awards campaign for the film.

Set in a secluded East German village during the summer of 1980, the film portrays the stifling day-to-day grind of a country doctor (Hoss) torn between her desire to flee to the West and her growing attachment to a fellow physician. 

After being banished from East Berlin for trying to obtain a travel visa, Hoss' character finds herself isolated in a gloomy Northern town where she works at the local medical clinic. Subject to constant supervision and searches by a menacing GDR officer and unable to take so much as an evening stroll without looking over her shoulder, she quickly searches for a way to leave the Eastern bloc once and for all but becomes conflicted because of her budding relationship.

Ronald Zehrfeld, Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Mark Waschke and Rainer Bock (The White Ribbon) also star. Schramm Film's Florian Koerner von Gustorf and Michael Weber produced.

The deal was negotiated by Match Factory’s Brigitte Suarez and Jenny Walendy and Adopt Films co-managing executives Lipsky and Tim Grady.

At Berlin, Adopt Films also acquired U.S. rights to festival entries Sister and Caesar Must Die, which won the Golden Bear for best picture.