In the film Phoenix, a concentration camp survivor returns to Berlin with the hope of rebuilding her life just as it was before the war. But of course, nothing is the same—not even her face—and she learns awful truths about her husband and people she thought were her friends. Through a clever (if slightly unbelievable) plot device, she is recreated, bit-by-bit, into her old self until she re-emerges into the light. But, she discovers of course, that nothing can be the same ever again.

So man...