Director Christian Petzold and actress Nina Hoss have worked on several projects together in the past. It is one of the most notable duos in German cinema right now and as she was the female lead in his last three films, you could probably even call her his muse. Generally, Petzold is a guy who seems to like working with the same people. Others he frequently cast are Benno Fürmann, Julia Hummer or Ronald Zehrfeld, who also is the male lead in "Phoenix" and has been very prolific in German cinema recently. Petzold wrote the film with the recently deceased Harun Farocki, also not a first-timer. The two went way back.
Hoss plays a woman who survived Nazi death camp in the 1940s and is now looking for her husband who possibly betrayed her and told the Nazis where to find her in order to save his own life and career. When she does, he does not recognize her due to facial surgery, but sees the resemblance and tries to start an fraud in order to get his wife's inheritance.
It's a good movie with a very strong performance by Hoss, a decent effort from Zehrfeld and good work by the talented supporting players who you may only know if you're really interested in German cinema, although they have won several awards already here. The true highlight is the ending. I'm not too fond of the film's title. You could probably find some metaphoric resemblance, but mostly it is just the name of the club where the two met again. They could have come up with something better here. Obviously Petzold loves one-word titles. You may want to watch this if you like German cinema or just World-War-II related movies although this one is really much more about the characters, especially the lead character, than really about historic significance. Recommended.
Hoss plays a woman who survived Nazi death camp in the 1940s and is now looking for her husband who possibly betrayed her and told the Nazis where to find her in order to save his own life and career. When she does, he does not recognize her due to facial surgery, but sees the resemblance and tries to start an fraud in order to get his wife's inheritance.
It's a good movie with a very strong performance by Hoss, a decent effort from Zehrfeld and good work by the talented supporting players who you may only know if you're really interested in German cinema, although they have won several awards already here. The true highlight is the ending. I'm not too fond of the film's title. You could probably find some metaphoric resemblance, but mostly it is just the name of the club where the two met again. They could have come up with something better here. Obviously Petzold loves one-word titles. You may want to watch this if you like German cinema or just World-War-II related movies although this one is really much more about the characters, especially the lead character, than really about historic significance. Recommended.