THE STORY – In 1949, German writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika embark on a road trip across a Germany in ruins, from US-dominated Frankfurt to Soviet-controlled Weimar.
THE CAST – Hanns Zischler, Sandra Hüller, August Diehl, Anna Madeley & Devid Striesow
THE TEAM – Paweł Pawlikowski (Director/Writer) & Hendrik Handloegten (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 82 Minutes
As shown with his previous two-period features, “Ida” and “Cold War,” visionary filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski knows exactly what he wants, and wastes no time getting there. His precise camerawork makes for incredibly contained storytelling, where striking sights and sounds elaborate on the rich context of his writing. Pawlikowski’s long-awaited latest feature, “Fatherland,” continues in much of the visual and thematic vein from his previous work. Succinct and interspersed with resonant music, “Fatherland” is an elegantly made film that journeys into the turmoil of post-war Europe, grappling with what shapes characters’ identities and how they perceive the world. Led by an impeccable pair of performers, Hanns Zischler and Sandra Hüller, this material translates into another poetic black-and-white journey from Pawlikowski’s confidently measured eye.
Set during the Cold War, the film follows the relationship between Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann (Zischler) and his daughter, Erika (Hüller), as they return to a divided, morally conflicted Germany. They embark on a challenging road trip across relics, ruins, and haunting anthems of the country’s moral state. Traveling from the US-dominated East (Frankfurt) to the Soviet-controlled West (Weimar), the post-war landscape unearths a deep dialogue that explores German idealism and the clash between capitalist and collective societal models. The narrative invites you to lean fully into how setting and historical context define individual action. Through the perspective of walking relics, performed by some of our finest living actors in a very brisk runtime, we gain an impeccably taut and compelling drama.
Pawlikowski makes a point of exploring complex themes through the Mann family dynamics, allowing the film to resonate with a distinctive voice and personality beyond a purely contextual lens. The layered characterizations are not merely vessels for communicating history, but, more importantly, fully realized humans in conflicted reflection on themselves and the future of their native country. The clarity and focus of his screenplay, co-written by frequent collaborator Hendrik Handloegten, extends into the film’s unsurprisingly stunning visual framework. One of the most engrossing elements of Pawlikowski’s direction is his impeccable staging of characters and settings. It’s fascinating to observe which spaces he gravitates towards for highlighting the emotionality of a scene or transitioning between moments that are in conversation with each other. There is a standout sequence in which Thomas visits the room in which the German writer Goethe died, tracing the past while being photographed and becoming a remnant himself. It serves as a resonant example of watching how a country develops through time.
To capture Pawlikowski’s vision, he has a longtime collaborator in Polish cinematographer Łukasz Żal, who worked on “Ida” and “Cold War,” as well as “The Zone of Interest” and “Hamnet” most recently. With this body of work, it’s no surprise that “Fatherland” is one of the most gorgeously shot films you will see this year. Żal continues to demonstrate his exquisite eye for evocative frames and an excellent use of shadows. He and Pawlikowski have an incredible shorthand; they always find the precise moment of when to capture the impact of narrative on a character or setting. Among the most exquisite moments to take in, Thomas and Erika sit next to each other in an abandoned building while a musician plays, a powerful depiction of the grief that connects them both.
It goes without saying, but Sandra Hüller is a once-in-a-generation talent. Her ability to shape shift between drastically different energies is unparalleled; take the striking contrast between Sandra Voyter in “Anatomy of a Fall” and Hedwig Höss in “The Zone of Interest,” to name one of many examples. Hüller commands every frame she graces, and in “Fatherland,” she is a consummate professional of emotional restraint and release. Haunted by the whereabouts of her brother, Klaus (August Diehl), who we meet in the film’s foreboding opening scenes, Erika sees fragments of him everywhere (as she would later reveal). The film conveys Erika and Klaus as two against the world, and we see his absence shape the inner turmoil she’s grappling with. A standout scene in which Erika shouts at a group of fascist scum to shut up speaks to the emotional conflict her character faces. Hüller’s performance shows keen interest in both the moments Erika deliberates quietly and the loud outbursts, such as a richly deserved slap to her ex-husband during a celebration for her father.
Co-starring alongside Hüller, Hanns Zischler turns in a captivating performance as Thomas Mann, a bourgeois relic and product of his time, as the character describes himself. Playing the complex legacy of Mann’s writings and societal beliefs, Zischler’s sublime performance is transporting to watch. He also delivers an incredibly seamless balancing act, being both all-encompassing of post-war ideologies and individualistic in personality. It is endlessly fascinating to observe which moments Zischler chooses to linger on and accentuate. One of his most impressive achievements arrives in the first half of the film, when Thomas accepts the Goethe prize and participates in a press conference. He answers several questions about where he considers home, and what the future of German society should reflect. Zischler makes each response feel gripping. Beyond his Olympic speeches (as Erika likes to call them), there is also an insight into his frame of mind behind closed doors. A silent dream sequence of Thomas at a funeral transitions into a glint in his eye as he lies in bed, offering an assured depiction of what keeps the character up at night.
Together, Hüller and Zischler take us on a gripping road trip through family history, and each stop along the way serves Pawlikowski’s uncompromising vision. Between “Fatherland,” “Cold War,” and “Ida,” he takes his time crafting these fully realized narratives without ever making them feel indulgent or overlong. “Fatherland” marks another homecoming: he returns to his preferred black-and-white format, incorporates brilliant musical choices that move the story forward, and continues to explore tough European history through questions of identity. Each and every artistic element works in lockstep to create another exquisite Pawlikowski film.
