Fatherland <img src="https://img.icons8.com/ios-glyphs/20/000000/star--v1.png"/><img src="https://img.icons8.com/ios-glyphs/20/000000/star--v1.png"/><img src="https://img.icons8.com/ios-glyphs/20/000000/star--v1.png"/>

Fatherland

Paweł Pawlikowski completes his cold war trilogy (after Ida, and Cold War) with this film that covers the story of author Thomas Mann's return to post-war Germany in 1949. A strident critic of the Nazi party, he had decamped to Switzerland in 1933, then moved to the US as WW2 broke out. His daughter Erika, accomplished in her own right, joins him as a familial assistant.

Sandra Hüller is typically remarkable as Erika, her measured calm interspersed with rare bursts of sad rage. Hanns Zischler is suitably troubled as the famous writer, possibly overestimating his place in the world but still trying to bring some sort of hope or balance to Europe.

In keeping with his magnanimity, Mann believes it's prudent to visit both West and East Germany, and this creates certain tensions amongst their hosts. At their first hotel in the West, Erika receives numerous letters containing death threats aimed at her father, presumably from Nazi sympathisers. Thomas is also questioned by American journalists as to his potential socialist leanings, pointing to his proposed visit East. Damned if you do....

They are a couple of great scenes at the swanky function after the awarding of the Goethe prize, but after this, the news of an untimely tragedy creates a schism that adds to the push and pull of the cold war main players.

Collecting his second Goethe prize in East Germany is a notably different affair, with mundane looking geezers watching proceedings, medallioned bigwigs glad-handing whenever possible, and desperate dissidents imploring Mann to help their cause.

The film is quite short yet the sometimes glacial pace wears thin now and then. Performance-wise, it's masterful and it has a lot to say about post-war rebuilding, of cities and minds. Not for everyone but Fatherland is a finely directed, bittersweet treatise on attempts to overcome weighty ideological differences.

Fatherland is screening at the Luna and Palace cinemas.

See also:

Pawlikowski's latest films are fine in an austere way, but My Summer of Love (2004) was a different beast. Hüller is supreme in Jonathan Glazer's brilliant The Zone of Interest (2023).

Comments

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