Paintings and prints frequently carry particular meaning within Petzold's films, as examples of the ancient tradition of ekphrasis, probably none more
so than in Phoenix's
immediate predecessor Barbara (2012) with its conspicuous Rembrandt print, but likewise in much earlier works like Die Beischlafdiebin (The Sex Thief, 1998) with a Gerard Richter on the wall — another artist conspicuously engaged with multiple forms of peculiarly German afterness.4