FATHERLAND

ABOUT THE FILM: In German, French, English and Russian with English subtitles. Set in the summer of 1949 amidst the rubble of a defeated Germany in the aftermath of World War II, Fatherland centers on the relationship between the Nobel Prize–winning novelist Thomas Mann (Zischler) and his daughter Erika Mann (Hüller) -actress, writer, and rally driver. Returning home after sixteen years of exile in the US, Thomas Mann must face not only a divided fatherland, but also a deep fissure within his own family, one that is both politically charged and emotionally challenging. As father and daughter embark on a fictionalized road trip across a torn Germany- still visibly scarred by battle and simultaneously in denial of its evils and culpability- they travel from US-dominated Frankfurt in the west to Soviet controlled Weimar in the east. Pawlikowski and Handloegten’s screenplay uses the Mann’s own fractured relationship as the vehicle to examine a country at the crossroads of history, facing an impending moral crisis. Cinematographer Łukasz Żal’s hauntingly stark black-and-white visuals skillfully capture Zischler and Hüller’s masterfully restrained performances. FORMAT: DCP DISTRIBUTOR: MUBI COUNTRY: Poland/Germany/Italy/France