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Academy Award–nominated director Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War) specializes in narratively economical yet emotionally and philosophically expansive historical drama, and his latest film, which earned him a Best Director prize at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, might be his most potent and provocative yet. Set in the aftermath of World War II, Fatherland follows the Nobel Prize–winning novelist Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika Mann (Sandra Hüller) on a fictionalized 1949 road trip across a torn Germany that’s at once reeling from the destruction of battle and in profound denial about its evils and culpability. As they move from the West to the East, Pawlikowski uses Thomas and Erika’s fraught interpersonal dynamics and own familial tragedies to reflect upon a country facing an ever-evolving moral urgency. Cinematographer Lukasz Zal’s beautifully stark black-and-white frames and Hüller and Zischler’s expertly restrained performances combine to evoke a Europe gradually awakening to a new historical reckoning. 

Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski 

2026 | Poland, Germany, Italy, France | German, English, French, and Russian language with English subtitles | DCP

Concessions

Concessions are available for all screenings and the Harris Theater is a BYOB venue. Guests who bring alcoholic beverages must be 21 years or older and provide a valid photo ID upon request. A $5 charge will be issued per guest.