Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski
Poland, Germany, Italy, France | 2026 | Fiction | 82 min | German, English, French, and Russian w/ subtitles
Sponsored by Kevin Meehan
Saturday, October 24 | 7 PM | FH
Winner, Best Director, 2026 Cannes Film Festival Like his first two films (Cold War, Ida) Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski’s third film, Fatherland, is shot in black and white and set in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. And, like those previous films, it’s absolutely fantastic. In 1949, famed German writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) returns to Germany after a 16-year exile with his none-too-thrilled daughter (Sandra Huller, great as always), and travels from West Germany to East Germany (“from Mickey Mouse to Stalin,” as Mann puts it) to accept the Goethe Prize. Along with the award, he gets the realization that there is a new world order that has no need for him. The film is beautifully written, directed and acted, but special mention must to to cinematographer Lukasz Zal’, Still in his early 40s, Zal’ has done major work on Pawlikovski’s other films, plus Zone of Interest and Hamnet, but surpasses himself with his photography here, which is just some of the most exquisite B&W cinematography… ever. ~ SM