We champion a master of contemporary noir for our final Noirvember pick, with Christian Petzold’s atmospheric post-war mystery PHOENIX.
After surviving Auschwitz, a former cabaret singer has her disfigured face reconstructed and returns to post-war Berlin to reunite with her husband, who may or may not have betrayed her to the Nazis. Without recognizing her, he enlists her to play his wife in a plot to claim her inheritance.
Even with this wildly implausible story, the film remains grounded in emotionally resonant tension through its stark questions of identity in post-war Germany and a haunting lead performance from Nina Hoss as the zombie-like Holocaust survivor clinging onto delusions of her pre-war self.
