Fatherland

Germany, 1949. At the height of the Cold War, writer and Nobel laureate Thomas Mann returns to his native land after sixteen years of exile in the United States. Accompanied by his daughter Erika—an actress and race car driver—he embarks on a road trip across a devastated and fractured Germany. Their route takes them through both East and West Germany, from American-controlled Frankfurt to Soviet-occupied Weimar; yet the battered landscape is not the only thing lying in ruins. As father and daughter, exceptionally portrayed by Hanns Zischler and Sandra Hüller, brave the political tensions of a divided nation, it becomes clear that deep rifts have also formed within the Mann family. In the melancholic Fatherland, stunning black-and-white cinematography blends a historical portrait with a family tragedy, resulting in a stylish road movie centered on the quest for a sense of belonging, identity, and reconciliation.

Fatherland premiered this spring in the official competition at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, where Oscar winner Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida, 2013) won his second award for Best Director, after Cold War in 2018. Fatherland is also Poland’s entry for the upcoming Academy Awards. The screening at the Noordelijk Film Festival marks its Frisian premiere.