German Film "Phoenix" Screens at Falmouth Jewish Congregation on October 17

Phoenix

Directed by Christian Petzold, starring Nina Hoss

Saturday, October 17 at 7:30 P.M.

Admission: $9 members; $12 non-members (admission includes freshly-popped popcorn and drinks)

Acclaimed German director Christian Petzhold’s latest film, Phoenix, made a splash at Jewish film festivals and even made a brief appearance on the Cape, but not near Falmouth. Now you can see it, too, at FJC. This event is open to the public.

The setting is Berlin. The time, June, 1945. Badly injured, her face destroyed, Auschwitz survivor Nelly returns to her hometown. She is accompanied by Lene, an employee of a Jewish agency and Nelly’s friend from the pre-war days. Having barely recovered from facial surgery, Nelly ignores Lene’s warnings and sets out to find her husband, Johnny – the love of her life who, by refusing to abandon their marriage, protected her from Nazi persecution for so long. Nelly’s family has been murdered in the Holocaust. Johnny is convinced that his wife, too, is dead. When Nelly finally tracks him down, he recognizes nothing but an unnerving resemblance and doesn’t believe it could really be her. Hoping to secure her family’s inheritance, Johnny suggests to Nelly that she take on the identity of his late wife. Nelly agrees: She becomes her own imposter. She wants to know whether Johnny loved her – and whether he betrayed her. Nelly wants her old life back.

“Life is a bombed-out, soulless cabaret in Christian Petzold’s Phoenix, a haunting portrait of identity, loss and the search for answers in post-WWII Berlin. The sixth teaming of Petzold and his leading-lady muse, the extraordinary Nina Hoss, finds the duo once again refracting the social and political complexities of 20th-century Germany through the prism of American genre films — here, specifically, the rich strain of doppelganger psychodramas (A Woman’s Face, Vertigo, Seconds) that hinged on the immutable power of the human face”. – Scott Foundas, Variety l”

Petzold’s 2012 film, Barbara, was selected to represent Germany in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 85th Academy Awards 2013. Nina Hoss, the lead in Phoenix and a frequent collaborator with Petzold, also starred in Barbara and in his 2007 film Yella.

Falmouth Jewish Congregation, 7 Hatchville Road, East Falmouth. 508-540-0602. www.falmouthjewish.org

Ample parking and accessible to all.