Barfuss is a film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 by German actor and director Til Schweiger

Til Schweiger

Tilman Valentin "Til" Schweiger is a German actor, director, and producer.He is one of Germany’s most successful filmmakers. Since 1968, when the FFA started counting, no other German actor has drawn more people to the cinemas. He runs his own production company, Barefoot Films, in Berlin.-Early...

 released in 2005

2005 in film

- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...

. It is a romantic comedy and tells the story of Nick (Til Schweiger), a hedonistic bachelor, who falls for Leila, an escaped mental patient, portrayed by Johanna Wokalek

Johanna Wokalek

Johanna Wokalek is a German stage and film actress. A student of Klaus Maria Brandauer, she received critical recognition and three newcomer awards for her performance in the play Rose Bernd. Wokalek is best known for her award-winning appearances in the German films Hierankl, Barfuss, and The...

. Til Schweiger was also involved in the writing of the screenplay.

Plot

The life of Nick Keller can hardly be called well sorted. He stumbles from one temporary employment to the next and he has very serious problems with Heinrich, his rich and influential stepfather, as well as with his brother Viktor. Nick’s latest temporary job is as a cleaner in a psychiatric clinic, where he prevents the notorious barefooted patient Leila from committing suicide. Leila’s story is also complex. The first nineteen years of her life she had been confined at home by her mother. She has been hospitalized into the clinic after the death of her mother, but is desperate to leave. However mentally Leila is still a child, for example, everything that she is told she takes literally, and she dislikes physical contact with strangers. The unexpected consequence of Nick’s act is that Leila follows her saviour secretly, in her nightdress and once again barefooted, and appears in front of his door at night-time.

As Leila constantly refuses go back to the clinic, she and Nick go on a road trip together in order to attend his brother’s wedding to Nick's ex-girlfriend. During the trip the relationship between the two deepens significantly. However, after serious disputes with his family Nick once again tries to hospitalize Leila. Thereby he has to confess to himself that he has fallen in love with Leila.

Nick is then arrested for attempted kidnapping and Leila is brought back into the clinic. Nick pretends to have mental problems so he too can go into the clinic with Leila, but only after Leila once again attempts suicide does her doctor admit him. The last scene shows them both together shopping in a supermarket, some months later, having both been released from the clinic.

Critical response

Despite some critical views, the film was generally well received and was awarded the German Media Award Bambi as the best German movie of 2005.

Title

The title ‘barfuss’ was wrongly spelled "barfuß" in some newspapers, as the latter is the correct spelling and the film title a misspelling.