‘Phoenix’ is a haunting post-Holocaust mystery

‘Phoenix’ is a haunting post-Holocaust mystery July 24, 2015

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In the still-growing canon Holocaust cinema, its victims and survivors, it’s impact on history and humanity, there are fact-based stories such as “Schindler’s List” and fictional stories such as “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.” There are also searing documentaries such as “Memories of the Camps” filmed by the allied troops that liberated the death camps at the end of World War II.

“Phoenix,” opening this weekend (July 24, 2015) in Los Angeles, is a fictional tale, though it could certainly have happened.

The film opens in 1945 in the immediate aftermath of the war. Nene (Nina Kunzendorf) is driving her cousin Nelly (Nina Hoss) to Switzerland to have reconstructive surgery on her face that is severely disfigured by a gunshot wound. They are both German Jews but Nelly has been in the camps and has suffered greatly.

Back in Germany, Nelly now looks different. Nene has rented an apartment for her cousin and has even gained some access to Nelly’s family’s money. Nene wants Nelly to relocate with her to Palestine and but Nelly only wants to find her non-Jewish husband, Johnny (Ronald Zehrferd), with whom she is still deeply in love.

Nene, finally, is forced to tell Nelly that Johnny believes she is dead and is trying to get her inheritance so must prove she is either deceased or alive. Nelly cannot believe this and she pursues Johnny at the nightclub he frequents. He notices that she could pass for his wife and convinces to stay in his apartment, to wear clothes and shoes that his wife would wear, and to learn to sign her signature so he can obtain her inheritance. He never makes a move on her and offers to pay Nelly for her efforts.

Johnny seems nice enough and when Nelly reports back to Nene that she is going to go along with his plan  that includes faking her homecoming from the camps to convince their friends who can then act as witnesses to his claim to Nelly’s money. Nene is distraught and says that it was Johnny who betrayed her to the Nazis. Nelly does not believe it. But she goes along with Johnny’s plans, now to find out if Nene is telling the truth.

Is Johnny guilty or not of this profound betrayal of the woman who loves him? The mystery plays out carefully through the lens of an atmospheric cinematography that hints at secrets and dark duplicity – and pointing to a broader complicity of the German people toward their Jewish citizens. Johnny is so handsome and kind enough to the woman he does not know is his wife that we want to believe he is innocent.

I am not sure the ending satisfies but it may leave you trying to write different endings to see if any other scenario would work or be possible even. It will leave you, I think, pondering individual decisions and atrocious events that would be incredible if we did not have witnesses and hard evidence that they actually occurred.

“Phoenix” is based on a 1961 French novel “Le Retour des cendres” by Hubert Monteilhe and was first produced as a film in 1965. Christian Petzhold directs and co-wrote the screenplay with the late Harun Farocki.

“Phoenix” tells a heartbreaking story but the title means “rising from the ashes.” The film invites us to contemplate human experiences, those filled with sorrow and incredible courage. Hope lives – though it may come with a scar and a hurt that may never go away.

In German with English subtitles.


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