You are a Jew. And you are sent to the camps. To Auschwitz. And now the war is over. You have returned home. And the task you set before yourself is to determine if your husband was the one who betrayed you.
But will your husband even recognize you? You were disfigured during the war and they had to reconstruct your face. So, you can return to the past more or less as a different person. You can find out things about yourself and those around you without the risk of of them finding out about you.
For example, you can find out if your husband really did betray you. You can find out if he really is basically just a slimy bastard. And, if so, you can plot your revenge.
Some have compared the film to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. In other words, the question of identity as that relates to what you [and others] see on the outside and how that impacts on your sense of self from the inside. Who you think you are and who others want you to think you are instead.
In any event, however much Nelly would like to look like she once did, she can never be who she once was. Too much has changed. And it is in reconfiguring her inner sense of self so as to be more in sync with this new set of circumstances that is particularly daunting. A part of her is compelled to will the past back into the present. And to make that the future.
And it is heightened all the more given this particular historical context.
The ending will give you goosebumps. Or it did me.
IMDb
Forty-five minutes before filming would start, Nina Hoss isolated herself from the rest of the cast and crew to reach the character’s sense of isolation.
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(2014_film
trailer: youtu.be/oobs8xFO3vo
PHOENIX [2014]
Written in part and directed by Christian Petzold
[b]Soldier: Passport…Nice car. Where did you get it from?
Lene: It’s from Switzerland.
Soldier: Just like you?
Lene: Like me.
Soldier [whistles to the gate]: They’re from Switzerland. The girl too.
…
Soldier [looking into the car]: I want to see her face.
Lene: Can I talk to you?
[she gets out of the car]
Lene: Come on, she’s not Eva Brown.
Soldier: Of course not. The bitch got killed by her husband.
Lene: She’s from the camps.
…
Soldier [to Nell]: Show me your face. Show me your face now!
[Nelly struggles to remove the bandages]
Soldier [clearly impacted by her ordeal]: Sorry…
…
Doctor [to Nelly]: The infected wound canal is from a gunshot. They thought you were dead. You were lucky.
…
Lene: Your entire family is dead. And Herbert and Marie…the twins…
Nelly: Esther?
Lene: I haven’t found her yet.
Nelly: Where is Johnny?
…
Nelly: I want to look like I used to.
Doctor: That’s difficult. I recommend you think it over.
Nelly: Why?
Doctor: On the one hand, it’s never quite the same, and on the other, a new face is an advantage.
Nelly: How is it an advantage?
Doctor: You’ll be a new and different person. You won’t be identifiable, which means…
Nelly: I want to look exactly like I used to.
…
Nelly [after seeing her new face in a mirror]: I no longer exist. Would you recognise me? Would you recognise me?!
Lene: Yes.
Nelly: No.
[she shows Lene an old photograph]
Nelly: This is me. Where did you get that?
Lene: The clinic needed pictures for the reconstruction.
…
Nelly [looking at a photo]: What do the circles signify?
Lene: Those are Nazis.
Nelly: And the crosses are for the dead?
Lene: Yes. We need a cross above Esther, too. It’s such a miracle you survived.
Nelly: There’s no cross above Johnny.
Lene: Johnny doesn’t interest me.
…
Lene: When you’re better, we’ll take care of your assets.
Nelly: Is it a lot?
Lene: They’re substantial. It’ll take a while to get the Nazis out of the properties, but there’s lots of money in Switzerland. It’s the victims’ money, it brings an obligation.
Nelly: To do what?
Lene: To go to Palestine and found a state where we Jews can live safely.[/b]
And the Palestinians? Well, that’s another movie.
[b]Lene: Did you give thought to Haifa or Tel Aviv? In Tel Aviv there’s a Jewish choir run by Vera Stroux. It might suit you.
Nelly: What would I do in a Jewish choir? I’m not a Jew.
Lene: You are, like it or not. They tried to kill you because you’re a Jew.
…
Lene: Johnny betrayed you. You were arrested on October 6, 1944. Johnny was arrested on October 4, 1944. He was interrogated and released just after your arrest on October 6. He wasn’t put in prison. No punishment. Indeed he was allowed to play again. Now he wants your money.
Nelly: Did you see him?
Lene: Yes. Two months ago.
Nelly: Did you speak to him?
Lene: I don’t speak to traitors.
…
Johnny [not recognizing Nelly]: We can earn a lot of money. You look very similar to someone.
Nelly: To whom?
Johnny: My wife. Alive she was poor, dead, she’s rich.
…
Johnny: I can’t get her inheritance. There’s no evidence she’s dead.
Nelly: Maybe she’s still alive.
Johnny: She’s dead. You have to play my wife. I’ll instruct you. You’ll return as a survivor, and collect her estate. We’ll split it. There’s 20,000 dollars in it for you.
…
Johnny: What’s your name, anyway?
Nelly: Esther. Do I really look similar to her?
Johnny: No. But you will.
…
Lene: You saw him.
Nelly: Yes.
Lene: What happened?
…
Johnny: It won’t work. Here are two dollars. And a ration card. I’m sorry. Go on, take it. Now leave.
Nelly: But we wanted to practise!
Johnny: It won’t work.
Nelly: Why not?
Johnny: Because you won’t cut it.[/b]
In other words, she, his wife, is not able to cut it pretending to be his wife.
[b]Johnny [giving her a pen and a piece of paper]: Here’s a specimen. You must be able to write like her. Practice it.
…
Johnny: Once we’re done here, you’ll take a train from the east and we’ll meet you at the station.
Nelly: And I’ll be in a red dress and shoes from Paris? You think anyone leaves the camps like that? Nobody will buy it.
Johnny: You’ve seen the returnees. All the burn wounds and shot-up faces! No one looks at them. Everyone avoids them. But we want them to look at you and say, it’s Nelly! Nelly made it! She’s back! She’s wearing a red dress and nice shoes because she’s so glad. It’s this that’ll get us what we want.
…
Nelly: If I’m coming from a camp, someone is bound to ask me what I experienced there, what I…
Johnny: What?
Nelly: How it was there, and I’ll need a story.
Johnny: What kind of story?
Nelly: Something or other. Like how we sat on a beam, naked and went through the clothing of those who had just arrived, while the Kapos stood around us. We had to check for banknotes, or jewels they’d hidden, And then this…girl, this girl looks at me. She looks at me. This girl looks at me…
Johnny: Where does the story come from?
Nelly: She’s got her mother’s dress…
Johnny: Where from?
Nelly: I…I read it.
…
Johnny: Quit playing Nelly! I know you’re not her! It’s not me you must convince!
…
Nelly: I’d not have survived the camp except for Johnny. I only thought about how I’d come back to him. And when I finally got here I simply had to look for him. And when I finally found him he didn’t recognise me. And it was…Lene, it was…I was…dead again. And now he’s made me back into Nelly again. I can’t come to Palestine.
Lene: Where will you go instead?
Nelly: With Johnny…back with him.
Lene: Impossible!
Nelly: Lene, since being back with him I’m myself again.
Lene: No.
Nelly: When he speaks of her…
Lene: “Her”?
Nelly: I’m really jealous…of me!
Lene: When will you tell him?
Nelly: I don’t know.
…
Lene: Do you know what disgusts me? We Jews wrote, sang and slaved…went to war for Germany, yet we were gassed, one and all. And now the survivors return and forgive. The gassing ceases and we forgive all counts of cowardice and treachery.
[pause]
Lene: I won’t go along with it, Nelly.
…
Nelly: I know he loves her. I don’t believe he betrayed her.
Lene: When you were sitting in the dark I thought you’d shot him and needed my help. And honestly, I’d have preferred that.
…
Nelly: Did you betray Nelly? Sometimes…it’s not a real betrayal. You hid her…had to take care of her all that time…Then came the arrest and interrogation. Finally you are suddenly released. You hurry to check up on her. You don’t notice you’re being followed. Then it’s too late. You just stand there and there’s nothing you can do. You have to watch Nelly being taken away.
…
Elizabeth: She left you a letter, too. I am to give it to you.
Nelly: But where is Lene, then?
Elizabeth: You don’t know? Mrs Winter shot herself on Thursday.
…
Nelly [voiceover reading Lene’s letter]: “Dear Nelly, I told you there is no way back for us. But for me there’s no way forwards, either. I feel more drawn to our dead than to our living. I cannot keep this from you. Your husband divorced you directly before your arrest. I enclose a copy of the relevant document. Farewell, Lene”
…
Johnny: I’m afraid this will hurt a little. Prisoners of Auschwitz were tattooed with a number on the forearm. Someone will ask about your number. And you’ll whisper that you cut it out. There’ll be no further questions.
Nelly: Get out!
…
Nelly: I always wished to sing with Johnny again…one day…in Berlin.[/b]