Review: Fatherland
by Marta Bałaga
- CANNES 2026: Polish helmer Pawel Pawlikowski returns with a casually cruel drama featuring another star turn from Sandra Hüller
It’s all about the “Cold post-War” era in Pawel Pawlikowski’s latest. Fatherland, an odd road movie playing in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, follows writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika (Hanns Zischler and Sandra Hüller) as they drive around a destroyed Germany picking up random awards for his work. It’s 1949, and people are trying their best to celebrate, but their eyes don’t match their outfits. It’s still a “horrible country with horrible people”, someone says, and nobody’s ready to do anything about it.
Mann’s family is no exception, divided and disappointed with son Klaus. He only opens up to Erika during their never-ending phone calls, while his lover silently leaves the room. Throughout the whole film, it’s as if people are aware of what’s happening, of all the pain. And they do nothing to stop it.
There seems to be a general belief here that humans don’t change – they just move on. Just like Thomas Mann, who can’t remember if he’s still the hero du jour or “communist scum”, supporting Stalin or Mickey Mouse. Or like Erika’s ex-husband, Gustaf Gründgens, who may have inspired her brother’s Mephisto. They move on, and then they try to explain themselves at a party. Erika doesn’t, but whatever Gründgens is selling, that interaction ends with a slap. It’s probably the only satisfying moment in the entire film. You can’t slap the whole nation.
Fatherland is so unsettling because it’s honest. Whatever the conflict, that’s exactly what happens, over and over again. Instead of a reckoning, there’s talk about opera over drinks and polite silence. Mann faces a parade of empty rituals that are always the same: a dinner, a parade, a song sung in his honour. This is where he and his daughter differ. He seems to enjoy the hoopla; she sees right through it. Then again, she’s not the one receiving the prizes.
That’s another interesting thing about these two. Erika, at least in this film, exists to serve her father. She translates his answers, edits his speeches and picks up his clothes. Apparently, she used to have a life of her own – people who meet her still refer to that – but now she’s become the sole guardian of this reeling family. But you can’t mend what doesn’t want to be healed.
Fatherland showcases Pawlikowski’s darker side, that’s for sure, and he still seems to see right through people. Love – in this case, between a father and daughter, between a brother and sister – still exists in the world, but almost in spite of it. The same was true of his Cold War, again with two people standing among the ruins. Not triumphant, but tired. There’s one scene here that echoes that beautifully. For a second, Erika and Thomas are not driving around; they are still, because where the hell are they even going? And, to borrow a question from the film, where’s home?
It’s easily the best-executed movie in the Cannes competition so far, with nothing, not a single take, that feels superfluous. Still, it will be interesting to see if Pawlikowski finally decides to abandon the aesthetic that brought him recognition: that black-and-white cinematography and stories set in the past. If he does, that would be a fitting – and chilling – goodbye.
Fatherland is a Polish-Italian-German-French co-production staged by Our Films, Extreme Emotions, Nine Hours Gmbh and Chapter 2, in collaboration with MUBI, Arte France Cinema and Pathé Films. It is sold overseas by The Match Factory.
Photogallery 14/05/2026: Cannes 2026 - Fatherland
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© 2026 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it
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