The plot of this film is so off-the-wall that I thought it must be based on a real event. Not so. It is a post-holocaust story with a screenplay co-written by its director, Christian Petzold. The tale is dark, and the sun is obscured as well in most scenes by either dank interior shots or by nightfall in devastated Berlin. The sparse soundtrack gives us tidbits of Cole Porter, Kurt Weill and beautiful piano/base duets. It is neither about war nor a horror story. It is a suspense story with a disfigured concentration camp survivor searching for the person she used to be. Nina Hoss gives a marvelous performance as the woman with the reconstructed face, and the entire cast around her are top-notch as well. I thought I had the ending figured out, but Petzold had his own plans. The ending confirmed that his film was actually a study in the adaptability of the human mind.
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