I may be wrong, as i am watching this, this is very much like The return from the ashes, where liv Ulman returns from the camp and meets with old lover played my maxmilian schell. who marries her for her money and tries to kill her. i really enjoyed the return from the ashes, and i am equally relishing this film.

A poignant, heartfelt & gripping story of love, loss, betrayal & retribution, Phoenix is crafted with composure, narrated with sensitivity, brims with suppressed emotions and is further elevated by a smashing lead performance from Nina Hoss to finish as a a heartbreaking love story & a satisfying revenge drama.Set at the aftermath of the Second World War, Phoenix tells the story of a disfigured concentration camp survivor who after undergoing a facial reconstruction surgery for damage caused by a bullet wound returns to Berlin to look for her husband whom she still loves but who also may have played a role in betraying her to the Nazis.Co-written & directed by Christian Petzold, the film is attention grabbing from the first sequence & sets its main plot in a very calm but steady manner. The post-World War atmosphere is wonderfully recreated, the camera always keeps its focus on the characters than the surroundings they are in, editing unfolds the plot at a relaxed pace while music remains in sync with transpiring events.The performances however add a great deal to the story plus the scripted characters exhibit some welcome depth which its cast is able to explore quite conveniently in their given roles. Leading the entire cast from the front is Nina Hoss in a terrific turn as the Holocaust survivor and her chemistry with both Ronald Zehrfeld & Nina Kunzendorf, who play her husband & friend respectively, simply clicks.On an overall scale, Phoenix brims with great emotional depth, compelling characters & a riveting storyline and is one amongst the better films of its year. The screenplay alone is strong enough to carry the whole picture all the way but the expertly carried out technical aspects & sincere inputs from its cast adds enhancements of its own to the entire experience. Emotionally resonant & thoroughly fine-tuned, this German drama is worth a shot.

"Phoenix" is the title of Christian Petzold's film and the phoenix who rises from the ashes is Nelly, a concentration camp survivor whose face has been so badly disfigured that it requires reconstruction. When it is reconstructed it is very much in the form of the original and yet her husband still doesn't recognize her. However, he sees a sufficient resemblance to get her to play the part of herself, his wife returned, as it were, from the dead simply to get his hands on her inheritance.Set immediately after the end of the Second World War Petzold's film works best as a thriller in the Hitchcock mold, (think "Vertigo"), rather than as a serious study of post-war German guilt. There are really only three main characters; Nelly, her husband, (Phoenix is also the name of the club where he works), and her friend who has brought her back to something resembling civilization. On a realistic level it's a little hard to swallow though the denouement is very nicely arrived at and Nina Hoss is excellent as Nelly. It's certainly worth seeing but I don't think it's quite the 'serious' picture critics have made it out to be.

What a movie.Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, and Nina Kunzendorf star in "Phoenix," a 2014 film based on the French novel "Return from the Ashes". There was a previous film made from this novel, actually called Return from the Ashes in 1965. I remembered seeing that movie as a kid and finally found it again. It's very good, but this film is better.Nina Hoss plays Nelly, a concentration camp survivor who was shot in the face. A government worker, Lena (Kunzendorf) in charge of helping victims, brings her to a plastic surgeon. Nelly is adamant that she wants to look exactly as she did before. The doctor can only promise to try. When she asks Lena who is paying for all this, Lena tells her that her entire family is dead and she has come into quite a bit of money.When Nelly sees herself, the face is foreign to her and she says, "I don't exist." She stays in an apartment with Lena. Lena has found an apartment for her in Palestine, where Lena is also moving.Nelly wants to find her husband Johnny (Zehrfeld), a non-Jew, but Lena cautions her that he betrayed her to the Nazis. She was a singer and he a pianist, so she goes to various clubs, but finally finds him working in a club called Phoenix as a dishwasher.Johnny doesn't recognize her, but he asks her if she wants some work. He explains to her that he can't get his hands on his wife's money. He wants her to impersonate Nelly, show up alive, claim her inheritance, and in return, he will pay her.At first, Nelly refuses, then relents. He shows her a photo of Hedy Lamar and says his wife modeled herself on that.Nelly returns to Lena and tells her that she's going to do the impersonation and not go to Palestine. She will stay with Johnny. She knows he would never have betrayed her.Director Christian Pezold has woven noirish tapestry about survival, love, betrayal, and guilt. It is reminiscent of Vertigo but with the specter of the Holocaust, much deeper and intense. Nina Hoss is beyond perfection as Nelly, desperate for her old life, her old face, her husband, to wipe out all she has suffered. Like Zehrfeld, she says more with her expressions than with dialogue. Zehrfeld as Johnny presents a disturbing puzzle of denial and horrific guilt, so unbearable that he tries to recreate Nelly.The last scene in this film, in its simplicity, is stunning and powerful.A brilliant film, which you may want to view more than once to pick up details along the way.