I had similar problem with polish language
I tried:
$fileEndEnd = mb_convert_encoding($fileEndEnd, 'UTF-8', mb_detect_encoding($fileEndEnd, 'UTF-8', true));
I tried:
$fileEndEnd = utf8_encode ( $fileEndEnd );
I tried:
$fileEndEnd = iconv( "UTF-8", "UTF-8", $fileEndEnd );
And then –
$fileEndEnd = mb_convert_encoding($fileEndEnd, 'HTML-ENTITIES', "UTF-8");
This last worked perfectly !!!!!!