- Phoenix - Film

German auteur Christian Petzold delivers another superbly crafted, emotionally resonant vehicle for his star Nina Hoss.

Both a powerful allegory for post-war regeneration and a rich Hitchcockian tale of mistaken identity, Phoenix once again proves that German filmmaker Christian Petzold and his favorite star, Nina Hoss, are clearly one of the best director-actor duos working in movies today.

This pared-down, classically helmed period piece uses one woman’s harrowing story to explore Germany’s troubled past, though in this case the setting is post WWII and the heroine is a concentration camp survivor returning to Berlin in search of her lost husband.