Hard Light Cinema at UR: Focus on German Film

Phoenix

Director: Christian Petzold
2014, 98 minutes

Phoenix, Christian Petzold’s haunting riff on Vertigo, is the exciting capstone to our Hard Light Cinema at UR: Focus on German Film series. It’s equal parts tender and thrilling as it balances espionage and survival in post-WWII Berlin. One of Nina Hoss’s great collaborations with Petzold, Phoenix tells the story of a former cabaret singer who survived the concentration camps and returned to find those who betrayed her to the Gestapo. With scenes that will move you and keep you on the edge of your seat, Phoenix concludes with one of the 21st century’s great cinematic endings.

Hard Light Cinema is a new Richmond collective of cinephiles bringing arthouse and non-mainstream films to central Virginia’s young professionals. The collaboration with the Film Studies Program and German Studies at the University of Richmond aims to connect UR students with Richmond city film fans. Hard Light focuses on films typically unavailable in standard movie theaters. On campus, Germany is the setting for all fall 2025 film features.