Sandra Hüller leads Fatherland at Cannes — Radio Times
radio times has Pawel Pawlikowski back in Cannes Competition with Fatherland, a 1 hour 22 minute film starring Sandra Hüller as Erika Mann and Hanns Zischler as Thomas Mann. The premiere puts the director in familiar territory: a historical drama shaped by tight framing, monochrome imagery and an overtly political line of dialogue.
Cannes Competition return
Fatherland premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in Competition, giving Pawlikowski another slot on the festival’s main stage. He directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Henk Handloegten, keeping the project firmly in his own authorship rather than handing it off to a new voice.
The 1949 story follows Thomas Mann and Erika on a journey through West and East Germany. That setting places the film in the same historical corridor as Ida and Cold War, and the review describes it as part of a loose triptych with those earlier films.
Erika Mann and Thomas Mann
Hüller plays Erika Mann, while Zischler plays Thomas Mann. The screenplay does not spell out the queer sexualities of the leading characters, which leaves the film relying on performance, gesture and the pressure of the journey rather than explicit exposition.
One line in the review captures the political edge of the film: “Mickey Mouse or Stalin”. In a story moving through West and East Germany in 1949, that kind of shorthand points to the competing cultural and ideological pulls Pawlikowski is building into the drama.
Monochrome and concessions
The film’s boxy ratio and silvery monochrome lensing place it in visual conversation with Pawlikowski’s earlier work, while ruined buildings, sharply cut suits, surly restaurant service and jazz, classical and folk tunes fill out the world. The result is a period piece that leans on design and atmosphere, not explanatory dialogue, to carry the argument.
The end credits say liberties have been taken with the known facts in the interests of drama, which is the one element viewers should keep front of mind. This is a Cannes Competition title built on historical figures, but it openly signals that it is shaping the record rather than reproducing it scene for scene.
