Dir. Paweł Pawlikowski · 2026 · 82 min · in cinemas
It is 1949. Thomas Mann, the Nobel-winning novelist who fled Germany and made his home in California, is invited back to accept literary honours in a country now split in two, with a ceremony on each side of the new border. His daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller) goes with him, wary of a homeland she has little reason to love. Fatherland follows that journey through a ruined, divided country, shot in black and white in the narrow, almost square frame of Pawlikowski's Ida and Cold War. Hanns Zischler plays Mann, with August Diehl as his son Klaus.
An icy draught of a film.
Donald Clarke, The Irish Times (five stars)
The craft, first of all. Critics single out Łukasz Żal's cinematography and the way the tall, tight frame leaves space above the characters, so that a whole damaged country seems to hang over them. At 82 minutes it is lean, and reviewers praise the discipline: it has no padding and no speeches telling you what to feel.
Then the performances. Reviews return again and again to Hüller's restraint, an Erika who is guarded around her father and sharper away from him, and to Zischler's severe, composed Mann. Several critics say the film is at its best in the quiet pressure between the two, and in an ending they call moving rather than showy.
This is a chamber piece, and the reviews are honest about what that costs. Some find it smaller than Cold War and less shattering than Ida. Clarke notes that a great deal is packed into a short running time while little happens on the surface. JoBlo's Chris Bumbray calls it solid but somewhat austere, and warns that the cold, unspoken family tension may be a hard sell for viewers who want a plot to pull them along.
The consensus is far from split, though: the doubts are about scale and temperature, not quality.
Tick what sounds like you. It is a rough guide, not a verdict.
Anyone who loved Pawlikowski's earlier black-and-white films, admirers of Sandra Hüller, and viewers who enjoy period dramas about ideas and family rather than events. It won the Best Director prize at Cannes in May and has been widely praised since; aggregate scores are very high. If you want warmth or momentum, you may find it distant.
It is a cinema release. In the UK and Ireland it opens on 23 October through MUBI. Release dates listed elsewhere include Poland in June, Germany in September, Italy on 16 October and France in December. Availability varies by country, so check your local cinema listings.