Fatherland: this biopic drama, by Paweł Pawlikowski, follows writer Thomas Mann as he goes back to post-war Germany for the first time, accompanied by his daughter, while a family drama unfurls elsewhere. It’s a very tight film, but still open-ended and thematically rich. The quality of the dialogue and performances helps immensely: Sandra Hüller, as the daughter quietly distraught by the whole affair, is excellent, and
Hanns Zischler, as the writer, is almost as good (and the difference comes from the character being more bottled-up). The film is beautifully shot by cinematographer Łukasz Żal, in glorious black-and-white and Academy ratio; it’s the epitome of a visual representation of control and restraint. Solid production design, by Marcel Slawinski and Katarzyna Sobanska, and costume design, by Ola Staszko. Good use of music as well, in a thematically relevant way.