Fatherland

Fatherland centres on the relationship between the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika, a politically engaged writer, actress, and rally driver. In the summer of 1949, at the height of the Cold War, father and daughter embark on a challenging road trip in a black Buick 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, as the towering figure of his son Klaus Mann, looms over everything he says and does.

A highlight of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where Paweł Pawlikowski won the award for Best Director, Fatherland explores masterfully the themes of identity, family, love and guilt amid the turmoil and confusion of post-war Europe.