Fatherland

Best Director (Ex-aequo), Cannes 2026

Original language: German, English, French, Russian

Subtitles: Romanian, English

Directed by: Paweł Pawlikowski

Country: Poland, Germany, Italy, France

Year of production: 2026

Length: 82 minutes

Genre: Drama

Fatherland centres on the relationship between the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika, actress, writer and rally driver. In the summer of 1949, at the height of the Cold War, father and daughter embark on a challenging and emotional road trip in a black Buick taking them 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 deep fracture within his own family.

Credits

Paweł Pawlikowski – Director

Paweł Pawlikowski, Henk Handloegten – Script

Casting

Sandra Hüller

Hanns Zischler

August Diehl

Devid Striesow

Anna Madeley