# Phoenix (2014 film)
**Phoenix** is a 2014 German drama film directed by Christian Petzold, in which [Nina Hoss](https://www.edgepedia.org/nina-hoss) plays Nelly Lenz, a Holocaust survivor who returns to rubble-strewn Berlin in the summer of 1945 with a surgically reconstructed face and finds that her husband Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld) does not recognize her. He asks her to pose as his late wife so that he can claim her inheritance, and she agrees, becoming her own doppelgänger while trying to learn whether he betrayed her to the Nazis.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/phoenix_) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28851-phoenix)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and screenplay | Christian Petzold, co-written with Harun Farocki, based on motifs from Hubert Monteilhet's novel *Le retour des cendres*[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28851-phoenix) |
| Cast | Nina Hoss (Nelly Lenz), Ronald Zehrfeld (Johnny Lenz), Nina Kunzendorf (Lene Winter)[1](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/phoenix_) |
| Production | Schramm Film Koerner & Weber, with Bayerischer Rundfunk, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, and Arte; shot 16 August to 4 October 2013 on 35mm in 2.35:1 color[3](https://www.filmportal.de/film/phoenix_815565d85d714d178cc323e53717b982) |
| Release | World premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2014; German theatrical release 25 September 2014; FSK rating 12[3](https://www.filmportal.de/film/phoenix_815565d85d714d178cc323e53717b982) |
| Running time and format | 98 minutes, color, Dolby sound[3](https://www.filmportal.de/film/phoenix_815565d85d714d178cc323e53717b982) |
| Key crew | Cinematography Hans Fromm, editing Bettina Böhler, production design K. D. Gruber, music Stefan Will[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28851-phoenix) |
| Reception | Metacritic score of 89 from 30 reviews; 98% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 129 reviews[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/phoenix/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/phoenix_2015) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The film opens in darkness in mid-1945: a car is stopped by American soldiers, and a whimpering passenger with a blood-soaked, bandaged face must show herself at a checkpoint. This is Nelly, a former cabaret singer who survived Auschwitz with a gunshot wound that shattered her skull and destroyed her face. Her friend Lene Winter, who works for the Jewish Agency, brings her from Switzerland to Berlin for treatment, where a surgeon rebuilds her face as well as he can.[6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/phoenix-review) • [1](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/phoenix_)
Against Lene's advice, Nelly searches for her husband Johnny, a pianist she still loves. Lene has documents suggesting that Johnny betrayed Nelly's hiding place to the Gestapo: he was arrested in Berlin on 4 October 1944 and released two days later, after which Nelly was seized at the boat house on the Müggelsee where she was hiding and deported to Auschwitz.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/phoenix_) When Nelly finds Johnny at the GI club called the Phoenix, he sees only a disturbing resemblance to the wife he believes dead. He proposes that she, going by the name Esther, impersonate his wife so that he can access the fortune she inherited from relatives murdered in the Holocaust. Nelly agrees, partly to reclaim her life and partly to find out whether Johnny ever loved her or was her betrayer.[6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/phoenix-review) • [1](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/phoenix_)
Johnny then remakes Nelly into the image of herself: he chooses her hair color, dresses, and lipstick, drills her on her lines and entrances, and stages a public reunion with their old friends beside a set of rail tracks. The rehearsal scene, in which Johnny directs and plays every part including those of the friends, haunts its later performance at the station.[6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/phoenix-review) In the final scene, Nelly sings [Kurt Weill](https://www.edgepedia.org/kurt-weill) and [Ogden Nash](https://www.edgepedia.org/ogden-nash)'s "Speak Low" with Johnny at the piano; as the song ends, the camera cuts to a close-up of the number tattooed on her forearm, and she walks out of the frame.[7](https://film-history.org/node/1175) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/15/phoenix-film-first-look-review-christian-petzold-nina-hoss)
## Origins and production
Petzold traced the project to his youth running a cinema in Haan, North Rhine-[Westphalia](https://www.edgepedia.org/westphalia), where in the late 1970s he read a special issue of the magazine *Filmkritik* on Hitchcock's *[Vertigo](https://www.edgepedia.org/vertigo-film)*, a film Hitchcock had withdrawn from circulation and which could not be seen. The issue included Harun Farocki's essay on substituted women in literature and film, and Farocki later recommended Monteilhet's novel *Der Asche entstiegen* (*Le retour des cendres*) to him.[9](https://www.bz-berlin.de/archiv-artikel/ich-muss-jetzt-mal-wieder-in-die-gegenwart-zurueck) • [10](https://www.kritiken.de/interview/christian-petzold-ueber-phoenix-26-08-2014.html) Petzold said he had wanted to make the film since the 1980s but lacked the confidence and the production means for historical material, and that casting Hoss and Zehrfeld together again after *[Barbara](https://www.edgepedia.org/barbara-2012-film)* (2012) made the second journey into the past possible.[11](https://www.moviepilot.de/news/petzold-uber-phoenix-kino-darf-keine-schule-sein-136284)
The film was produced by Florian Koerner von Gustorf and Michael Weber's Schramm Film Koerner & Weber in co-production with Bayerischer Rundfunk, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, and Arte, with funding from Medienboard Berlin-[Brandenburg](https://www.edgepedia.org/brandenburg) (400,000 euros), the DFFF (617,665 euros), BKM (137,500 euros), and several FFA grants.[3](https://www.filmportal.de/film/phoenix_815565d85d714d178cc323e53717b982) • [12](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Phoenix__169149.html) Shooting took place from 16 August to 4 October 2013, largely in Brandenburg rather than Berlin, in a studio setting Petzold described as a kind of time bubble.[3](https://www.filmportal.de/film/phoenix_815565d85d714d178cc323e53717b982) • [10](https://www.kritiken.de/interview/christian-petzold-ueber-phoenix-26-08-2014.html) Farocki died on 30 July 2014, weeks before the premiere, making *Phoenix* the last feature the two completed together.[13](https://sightlines.media/film/254578/phoenix-2014)
Rather than appearing at the Berlinale, the film debuted in the Special Presentations program of the [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival) in September 2014, then played the [New York Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-york-film-festival) before opening in Germany on 25 September 2014. Germany did not submit it for the foreign-language Academy Award, choosing Dominik Graf's *Beloved Sisters* instead.[13](https://sightlines.media/film/254578/phoenix-2014) It was released in the United Kingdom on 8 May 2015 and in the United States on 24 July 2015.[14](https://www.blu-ray.com/Phoenix/370705/) [The Criterion Collection](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-criterion-collection) issued it on Blu-ray and DVD as Spine #809.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28851-phoenix)
## Style and influences
**A chamber piece in film noir dress.** Petzold and his regular collaborators, cinematographer Hans Fromm and production designer K. D. Gruber, build the film out of enclosures: doorways, car windows, mirrors, and the glass and neon of the red-lit Phoenix nightclub. The ruins of Berlin arrive in fragments at the edges of frames rather than in panoramic rubble tableaux.[6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/phoenix-review) • [13](https://sightlines.media/film/254578/phoenix-2014) Critics have read the film as a homage to *Vertigo*, whose plot of a man remaking a woman into his lost love it deliberately echoes, and Petzold has confirmed the reference, describing Nelly as a nod to [Kim Novak](https://www.edgepedia.org/kim-novak)'s character.[15](https://cineuropa.org/en/interview/283756/) Reviewers have also noted echoes of *Eyes Without a Face* (1960), *Cabaret* (1972), and [Rainer Werner Fassbinder](https://www.edgepedia.org/rainer-werner-fassbinder)'s melodramas, the latter reinforced by Zehrfeld's physical resemblance to Fassbinder.[6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/phoenix-review) • [16](https://mubi.com/en/films/phoenix-2014/critics-reviews)
Music structures the film. Stefan Will's jazzy score runs through it, and the plot culminates in "Speak Low", the Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash song from 1943, which is heard throughout and carries the ending.[17](https://www.screendaily.com/phoenix/5077838.article) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/15/phoenix-film-first-look-review-christian-petzold-nina-hoss) Petzold has said the film's last line of screenplay was "Nelly geht" ("Nelly leaves"), and that the meaning of those two words became clear to him only on the final day of the chronologically shot production.[10](https://www.kritiken.de/interview/christian-petzold-ueber-phoenix-26-08-2014.html)
Thematically, the film is less about revenge than about denial: a man who cannot recognize his own wife, a woman who cannot admit the truth about her husband, and a society that masks the horror of the camps with an idealized image of a returned survivor. Johnny's staged homecoming, in which an Auschwitz survivor returns in high heels and a chignon because "they want to see Nelly, not a raggedy camp returnee," has been read as a comment on the failure of art, and cinema in particular, to tell stories about Germany's past.[16](https://mubi.com/en/films/phoenix-2014/critics-reviews) • [6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/phoenix-review) Petzold himself located the title's meaning in the country rather than the heroine: the Germans after the war are the phoenix, not Nelly.[18](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17411548.2016.1222739)
## Reception and awards
Critical reception was strongly positive. *Phoenix* holds a Metacritic score of 89 based on 30 reviews and a 98% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 129 reviews, with the critics' consensus calling it "tense, complex, and drenched in atmosphere".[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/phoenix/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/phoenix_2015) Reviewers singled out Hoss's performance, playing a character playing a character playing a character, and the final scene, which appeared on year-end lists in 2014 and 2015 and on decade-end polls.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/15/phoenix-film-first-look-review-christian-petzold-nina-hoss) • [13](https://sightlines.media/film/254578/phoenix-2014)
The film's awards include the FIPRESCI Prize at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2014, the German Film Award (Lola) for Best Supporting Actress in 2015, the Golden Space Needle Award for Best Actress at the Seattle International Film Festival 2015, a Special Jury Award at the Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival 2014, and critics' circle prizes in 2016 including the Central Ohio Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Australian Film Critics Association Award for Best International Film. The German Film Review Board (FBW) gave it the rating "besonders wertvoll" (especially valuable) in 2014.[3](https://www.filmportal.de/film/phoenix_815565d85d714d178cc323e53717b982)
## References
1. [Phoenix, filmportal.de (English summary and credits)](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/phoenix_)
2. [Phoenix, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/28851-phoenix)
3. [Phoenix, filmportal.de (German credits, ratings, awards)](https://www.filmportal.de/film/phoenix_815565d85d714d178cc323e53717b982)
4. [Phoenix Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/phoenix/)
5. [Phoenix, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/phoenix_2015)
6. [Phoenix review, Catherine Wheatley, Sight and Sound (BFI)](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/phoenix-review)
7. [Phoenix, The Auschwitz Tattoo in Visual Memory, Film History](https://film-history.org/node/1175)
8. [Phoenix review, Ryan Gilbey, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/15/phoenix-film-first-look-review-christian-petzold-nina-hoss)
9. ["Ich muss jetzt mal wieder in die Gegenwart zurück", B.Z. interview with Christian Petzold](https://www.bz-berlin.de/archiv-artikel/ich-muss-jetzt-mal-wieder-in-die-gegenwart-zurueck)
10. [Interview: Christian Petzold über PHOENIX, kritiken.de](https://www.kritiken.de/interview/christian-petzold-ueber-phoenix-26-08-2014.html)
11. [Petzold über Phoenix: Kino darf keine Schule sein, Moviepilot](https://www.moviepilot.de/news/petzold-uber-phoenix-kino-darf-keine-schule-sein-136284)
12. [Phoenix, Crew United](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Phoenix__169149.html)
13. [Phoenix (2014), analysis and production history, Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/254578/phoenix-2014)
14. [Phoenix Blu-ray, blu-ray.com (release dates)](https://www.blu-ray.com/Phoenix/370705/)
15. [Christian Petzold interview, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/interview/283756/)
16. [Phoenix (2014) critics reviews, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/films/phoenix-2014/critics-reviews)
17. [Phoenix review, Fionnuala Halligan, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/phoenix/5077838.article)
18. [Christian Petzold's melodramas, Studies in European Cinema](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17411548.2016.1222739)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Film noir and neo-noir films › Released 1977 to 2022*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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