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Winner, Best Director, 2026 Cannes Film Festival
Like his first two films (Cold War, Ida) Polish director Paweł Pawlikowski’s third film, Fatherland, is shot in black and white and set in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. And, like those previous films, it’s absolutely fantastic. In 1949, famed German writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) returns to Germany after a 16-year exile with his none-too-thrilled daughter (Sandra Huller, great as always), and travels from West Germany to East Germany (“from Mickey Mouse to Stalin,” as Mann puts it) to accept the Goethe Prize. Along with the award, he gets the realization that there is a new world order that has no need for him. The film is beautifully written, directed and acted, but special mention must to to cinematographer Łukasz Żal’, Still in his early 40s, Żal’ has done major work on Pawlikovski’s other films, plus Zone of Interest and Hamnet, but surpasses himself with his photography here, which is just some of the most exquisite B&W cinematography… ever. ~ SM