Fatherland centres on the relationship between the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller) – actress, writer and rally driver. In the summer of 1949, 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. Returning home after sixteen years of exile in the US, Thomas Mann has to face not only a divided fatherland, but also a deep fracture within his own family.
With Fatherland, Paweł Pawlikowski picks up where he left off with his award-winning Ida and Cold War, exploring – in his elliptic, distilled style – the themes of identity, family, love and guilt amid the turmoil and confusion of post-war Europe.
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