Sagaspedia
Fatherland
Plot
Fatherland (original title Vaterland) goes back to 1949. The war has only just ended, Germany is split in two, and Thomas Mann, the country's most famous writer, is living in exile in the United States.
Mann agrees to return to accept a Goethe Prize in Frankfurt. Along for the trip is his daughter Erika, who translates, organizes and shields her father. Far away in Cannes, her brother Klaus, a writer too, is unhappy with his work and with the art of his day. Erika asks him to come along, and he says no.
In West Germany, reporters want to know whether Mann will set foot in the Soviet zone, and what that might cost him back in the US. Every stop brings faces from the Nazi past, and the old writer tries to keep his composure while his daughter stares the ghosts down.
As in Ida and Cold War, Pawlikowski shoots in black and white and tells it all in just over 80 minutes. Sandra Hüller plays Erika, and Hanns Zischler plays Thomas Mann.
Inspired by Thomas Mann's real 1949 trip to Germany
Official trailer
Awards and nominees
- Cannes Film Festival 2026 · Best Director (tie)
Trivia
- Pawlikowski was sent Colm Tóibín's Mann novel The Magician but chose not to adapt it, writing his own take on the 1949 episode with Hendrik Handloegten.
- It was shot mostly in Poland to save money, with sets built to pass for Germany. The Thomas Mann House was rebuilt from blueprints, photos and video.
- The 38-day shoot followed the story's chronology almost all the way through.
- Łukasz Żal, the director's cinematographer on Ida and Cold War, shot it.
Cast
- Erika MannSandra Hüller
- Thomas MannHanns Zischler
- Klaus MannAugust Diehl
- Johannes R. BecherDevid Striesow
- Gustaf GründgensJoachim Meyerhoff
- Betty KnoxAnna Madeley
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
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