The German movie “Barbara” by Christian petzold relate the story of a doctor who was banished to a rural hospital and under the watch of the German secret police. Despite the treatment she received from the officer and his assistant who searched her appartement and herself very often, she managed to be caring at work. Barbara have a secret lover with whom she is planning to escape to the West. However, she became friendly to the hospital’s chief doctor and to patients as well specially one patient called Stella a teenager who is interned at that work camp. Barbara had a moral dilemma which is whether saving herself by escaping the police and rejoining her lover to the West or helping the young and pregnant Stella escape the camp where she was interned. In this case, Barbara followed her conscience by letting Stella escape instead of her because she needed it more than her to save herself and her baby.
If I was Barbara I would save my self instead of helping Stella because I did not know Stella for that long and contrary to Stella Barbara had a lover waiting for her on the other side who helped her plan the escape for long. My decision would be based on the third moral principle of Chaffee’s moral positions which is to do whatever would improve our own situation.
One thought on “Kadiatou Diallo “Barbara””
I came to the same conclusion when I reviewed the movie, “Barbara”. But instead of being motivated for the love of her boyfriend, I would’ve just been focused on my happiness and the future I wanted. All that she would have left behind were situations that strongly tested her morals, but were also situations that wouldn’t have changed or improved with her intervention. Like Stella taking the place of Barbara during escape time. My first thought was, I’m going to kill her, because there’s no way she would make this treacherous journey across a sea. I would’ve thought it safer for her to try and fend for herself, rather than the sea. But Stella was in a labor camp, and the living conditions and the slave like workload probably made the journey worth it to her. But if I were Barbara, I’d be heavy kicking ocean foam clean across the Baltic Sea!