PHOENIX
a film by Christian Petzold, Starring Nina Hoss.
110min - German with English Subtitles
Friday, May 8 - Toronto, TIFF Bell Lightbox
Friday May 8 - Calgary, Globe Cinema
Friday May 8 - Kingston, Screening Room
Friday May 8 - Westdale Theatre, Hamilton
Friday May 15 - Vancouver, Vancity
Friday May 15 - Toronto, Mount Pleasant
Friday May 15 - Waterloo, Princess Cinema
Friday May 15 - Victoria, The Vic
Friday, May 22 - Saskatoon, Roxy Theatre
Friday May 29 - Edmonton, Princess Cinema
Friday June 5 - Winnipeg, Winnipeg Cinematheque
Friday June 5 - London, Hyland Cinema
Friday June 12 - Ottawa, Bytowne Cinema
Thursday June 25 - Regina, Regina Public Film Theatre
Films We Like is pleased to announce that “Phoenix” the new film by acclaimed German filmmaker Christian Petzold (Barbara, Yella, Jerichow) begins its theatrical release across Canada at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto on Friday, May 8, following its World Premiere at TIFF 2014.
Petzold’s highly anticipated film “Phoenix” reunites him with his muse, the exquisite Nina Hoss who also starred in his films “Barbara”, “Yella” and “Jericho” and can currently be seen on screen with Philip Seymour Hoffman in “A Most Wanted Man”. It was 2012’s “Barbara” that won Petzold not only the Director Silver Bear at Berlin but propelled him onto the world stage.
While “Barbara” was set in the German Democratic Republic of the early 1980s, Phoenix goes back to the post-Second World War era, focussing on Nelly (Nina Hoss) who has survived the Holocaust. Presumedly dead, she returns home under a new identity to find out if her husband betrayed her.
Following facial reconstruction surgery, Nelly begins the search for her husband Johnny. When she finally does find him, Johnny does not recognise her. Nevertheless he approaches her with a proposal: since she resembles his wife, whom he believes to be dead, he asks her to help him claim his wife’s considerable inheritance. Nelly agrees, and becomes her own doppelganger. She needs to know if Johnny ever loved her, or if he betrayed her. Nelly wants her life back.
The more similarities to her dead counterpart she reveals, the more desperate and confusing their relationship becomes.
Will Johnny confess his love? Or his guilt?
Christian Petzold has established himself as the most internationally recognized representative of the so-called "Berlin School," the unofficial new wave of filmmakers who have reinvigorated German cinema with films marked by a precise, observational style that manages to be simultaneously enigmatic and radically lucid.
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About Films We Like
Founded by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ron Mann, Films We Like is a boutique distributor of documentary, independent and international films in Canada.
Media contact
Virginia Kelly, Meghan Parnell
V Kelly & Associates
info@vkpr.ca