Following Ida and Cold War, Paweł Pawlikowski returned to Cannes this month with Fatherland, a drama starring Sandra Hüller and Hanns Zischler, which earned him a Best Director prize. Ahead of a fall release from MUBI, the first trailer and poster have now arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “FATHERLAND centers on the relationship between the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller) – actress, writer and rally driver. Set at the height of the Cold War, father and daughter embark on a challenging and emotional road trip in a black Buick taking them across a Germany in ruins – from US dominated Frankfurt to Soviet controlled Weimar. For the first time since the war, Mann returns to his native Germany, having made the difficult decision to flee for the safety of the US.”
Luke Hicks said in his review, “For how accessible Pawlikowski’s previous two features were, Fatherland feels like it’s made by someone else. The trademark black-and-white cinematography (so elegant it almost feels marbled) from regular collaborator Łukasz Żal points to Pawlikowski, as does the tight 82-minute runtime and squarish, 1.37:1 aspect ratio. In a way, Fatherland is also the third in what amounts to a World War II trilogy. But the subject, flow, and approachability combine for the coming of a new Pawlikowski in heady academic form—an auteur in the shape of a wizened professor, much like Mann.”
See the trailer and poster below.
