10th edtion CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

Phoenix (2015 Feature Film)

Christian Petzold | Germany | 2014 | 110 min | German

Intelligent psychological and historical drama in which a Jewish concentration camp survivor whose face is disfigured beyond recognition goes in search of her husband among the ruins of post-war Berlin. Was he the one who betrayed her to the Nazis?

Shortly after the end of World War II, Jewish Nelly has to undergo plastic surgery because her face became deformed while escaping from a concentration camp. She then travels to the ruins of Berlin in the hope of finding her husband, Johnny. The question of whether he betrayed her to the Nazis is eating away at her. In the midst of this confusing no-man’s-land where nothing is left of her old life, Johnny seems not to recognize her. But he decides to bring her in on a plan.

Christian Petzold (JerichowBarbara), who also penned the intelligent script, tells a powerful, tense and emotional story, assisted by his excellent lead actress, Nina Hoss (Yella, Barbara), and the beautiful set design. What is the effect on your identity of such a traumatic period, in which friends and lovers are forced into the role of perpetrator or victim? What survives after such a devastating war? Love? Revenge? Hope, perhaps?

Place: The Cinemas 4

Date: 27 March 2015

Time: 19:30

Duration: 2:00

Place: The Cinemas 2

Date: 28 March 2015

Time: 16:45

Duration: 2:00

Place: The Cinemas 6

Date: 29 March 2015

Time: 21:30

Duration: 2:00

Year in
Festival

2015

Director

Christian Petzold

Camera

Hans Fromm

Cast

Nina Hoss
Ronald Zehrfeld
Nina Kunzendorf

Country

Germany

Editor

Bettina Böhler

Language

German

Length

110 min

Music

Stefan Will

Producer

Florian Körner von Gustorf
Michael Weber

Production Company

Schramm Film Koerner & Weber

Production Design

Kade Gruber

Sales

The Match Factory

Scenario

Christian Petzold

Sound Design

Dominik Schleier

Year of Production

2014

Website

Christian PETZOLD (1960, Duitsland) studeerde Duits en vervolgens theaterwetenschappen en filmregie in Berlijn. Onder Harun Farocki en Hartmut Bitomsky werkte hij als regieassistent. Met Die innere Sicherheit (2000) bewees Petzold een zeer getalenteerde filmmaker te zijn – voor deze en volgende films won hij talloze prijzen, waaronder de European Film Award, meerdere FIPRESCI-prijzen en een Gouden Leeuw in Venetië. Barbara (2012) werd door de Amerikaanse National Board of Reviews opgenomen in de top vijf van beste buitenlandse films.

 

Filmography

Mission (1987, short), Weiber (1989, short), Süden (1990, short), Glanz und Elend der Hochbegabten (1990, short), Ostwärts (1991), Das warme Geld (1993), Abzüge (1994, short), Pilottinen (1995, TV), Cuba Libre (1996, TV), Die Beischlafdiebin (1998, TV), Die innere Sicherheit/The State I Am In (2000), Toter Mann/Something to Remind Me (2001, TV), Wolfsburg (2004), Gespenster/Ghosts (2005), Yella (2007), Jerichow (2008), Dreileben – Etwas besseres als den Tod/Beats Being Dead (2011, short), Barbara (2012), Phoenix (2014)