Fatherland (2026 | Poland | 82 minutes | Pawel Pawlikowski)
World War II has just ended, and sweeping landscapes of a crumbling German town fill the opening sequence. What follows is an intimate re-imagining of the Mann family’s experience post-war with the patriarch Thomas (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erica (Sandra Hüller) embarking on a sort of literary tour of the country to boost national morale perhaps? But also maybe to boost his ego and boast patriotism after having escaped to the US for many years to avoid the destruction that had consumed his homeland. Soon after the tour begins, they find out that his son Klaus has taken his own life in France where he’d been residing. Out of pain, stubbornness, fear, anger, or all of the above, Thomas Mann decides to push on with the tour rather than gather with family to mourn his son. The conflict building within him along with the hostility from his daughter (playing his personal aid and translator for foreign press) for continuing on as though Klaus means so little mixes and swells to an emotional breaking point.
This quiet, poignant historical fiction is the third installment of post-war stories by Pawlikowski examining the emotional and mental traumas experienced by Europeans. Perhaps to gain more intrigue or create a sense of connection he chooses a well-known family as his subject, but for me having had very little knowledge of the incredibly talented Mann family, it was also an interesting look at the social inner-workings of the upper class in post-Nazi Germany. A stark look at those that were willing to play along with the demands of a xenophobic monster for fear of losing their standing or wealth even if it destroys their own family and the fallout (or infuriating lack thereof) of being on the wrong side of history. Just as much as this is a story about Thomas, it follows Erika coming to terms with the country she called home, what still waits for her there and if she even cares for it the way she once did. I loathe that there are at least 2-3 Nazi films that make it into the public eye every year (because it obviously has done literally nothing to teach us how to avoid it, especially in the US, but I digress) but Fatherland was less about the war and more about how we move forward after something tore the very soul out of a people and a nation.
Fatherland is now playing at SIFF Cinema Uptown.