Story perspectives

Pawlikowski’s Monochrome “Fatherland” Debuts at Cannes.

5/17/2026

Summary

Story summary

Fatherland, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, premiered in Competition at Cannes with Sandra Hüller and Hanns Zischler leading.
The 1-hour-22-minute monochrome film is set in 1949 and tracks the Mann siblings across divided Germany.
Co-written with Henk Handloegten and shot by Lukasz Zal, the screenplay takes liberties with facts.
It omits queer sexualities, includes a “Mickey Mouse or Stalin” line, and uses phone calls like Klaus’s suicide announcement to raise stakes.

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Story summary

Fatherland, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, premiered in Competition at Cannes with Sandra Hüller and Hanns Zischler leading.
The 1-hour-22-minute monochrome film is set in 1949 and tracks the Mann siblings across divided Germany.
Co-written with Henk Handloegten and shot by Lukasz Zal, the screenplay takes liberties with facts.
It omits queer sexualities, includes a “Mickey Mouse or Stalin” line, and uses phone calls like Klaus’s suicide announcement to raise stakes.