Slideshow
FATHERLAND
Opens Friday, October 23
DIRECTED BY PAWEŁ PAWLIKOWSKI
STARRING HANNS ZISCHLER AND SANDRA HÜLLER
Poland’s Official Selection for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards®
WINNER, BEST DIRECTOR, 2026 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
From the director of IDA and COLD WAR: FATHERLAND follows Nobel Prize-winning author Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler, KINGS OF THE ROAD) and his actress daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller, ANATOMY OF A FALL) as they drive across a war-ravaged 1949 Germany. Returning home after years of exile in the U.S. and exuding a superhuman gravitas, Mann finds the Germany he knew to be gone, replaced by a country with contradictory ideologies. Erika, who acts as his travel coordinator and translator, strives to pierce his detached persona while quietly struggling with a family tragedy.
Presented with support from The Ashes and Diamonds Fund for Eastern European Film
2026 82 MIN. POLAND / GERMANY / ITALY / FRANCE
IN GERMAN, ENGLISH, RUSSIAN, AND FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES MUBI
Trailer
Reviews
★★★★★ “Another expansive, enriching work from a modern master.”
– Phil de Semlyen, Time Out
“A perfectly cut jewel of a movie... The power of the movie creeps up on you with its emotional restraint, the beauty of its black-and-white images and the delicacy with which Pawlikowski explores the devastations trembling under the faces of both father and daughter...”
– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
“Stunning... an exquisite study of family, identity, and art where future ideals are intertwined with historical remorse.”
– Tomris Laffly, Elle
“[A] damn-near perfect period piece... Told with exacting restraint yet as layered as the lacquer on an ebony Biedermeier console, this forms a loose triptych with Pawlikowski’s last two features, IDA and COLD WAR, both of which were set at least partly behind the Iron Curtain... It is immaculately performed by Zischler and especially Hüller, grounding the film throughout with an uncanny, expressive stillness. But it is also exquisitely rendered in the same boxy ratio and silvery monochrome lensing Pawlikowski and DP Lukasz Zal (THE ZONE OF INTEREST) deployed on IDA and COLD WAR, and scrupulously detailed down to the ruined buildings, sharply cut suits, surly restaurant service and eclectic selection of jazz, classical and folk tunes chosen by Pawlikowski, all of which is sure to set discriminating viewers swooning.”
– Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter
