By Dan Skip Allen

“Fatherland” is the latest film from acclaimed Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski. The director of such films as “Ida”, and “Civil War”. He’s a foreign director, so his movies have subtitles and a foreign aesthetic to them. Similar to the other two films I mentioned, his latest has a backdrop of Nazi Germany and how Polish people are affected in one way or another by the war to end all wars, WWII.  He has a way of connecting his characters and story to a time period that is not remembered fondly by many. That makes his movies have a very profound nature to them. And why audiences are connected to them.

Set during the Cold War, Erika (Sandra Huller) escorts her famous father Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) on a trip across Germany as he’s about to get the Goethe Prize. As they travel from place to place in their black Buick car, they meet people who are resentful towards them. They were stuck in a disgraced Germany, and he escaped to sunny California, where he lived comfortably well. He also has to be reminded about his brother Klaus Mann, who was a nazi sympathizer. When you lose in life, you tend to be grumpy and take it out on others. That’s the case here. The Germans are not happy with him. 

Like his other films in this Cold War trilogy, Pawlikowski uses gorgeous Black and white cinematography from Lukasz Zal. There are many sequences that are stunning and stand out as beautiful. One in particular of the car driving along through rubble and destroyed buildings was very effective. There are so many shots from above of various structures or of the car driving along roads that stand out. Many other shots in rooms or buildings filled with people listening to Mann talk look equally good. Not a lot of directors know how to use Black and white cinematography to the effect that Pawlowski does, and that’s why his movies look so rich and filled with death and layering as far as it comes to the great cinematography. 

I have a thing when it comes to trying to eliminate history from the world. A lot of different religions or countries want to say this or that historical event didn’t exist or they want to take references out of history books or schools. Pawlowski is a Polish director during his Cold War trilogy that wants people to be reminded about the things that happened in WWII. The persecution of an entire race of people, the concentration camps, and the appalling nature of the Third Reich. Trying to create a perfect race of people is ridiculous. Some fascist sentiment is going around today, but it’s people like this that won’t let this happen again. One way is by making films depicting stories about people who existed during this time in history. And how this history affected them and others. That’s the kind of writer and directors I want to follow or watch their films. They remind me of the wrongs of the past.

Within the context of the main story, there are other subplots in the short 80-minute film. An ex-husband, a dead brother, and scheming brothers trying to profit off of pain and suffering are just a few of the things that are going on in this small in length movie. It just shows how, despite everything that has happened, people still have lives and try to make something at the expense of others. I like how Pawlikowski strewn the story full of shady characters with questionable motives to show the true nature of these people who were trying to take over the world. It just shows that these people are monsters and can’t be trusted no matter how nice or friendly they act.

“Fatherland” is a stark look at a country in ruins through the eyes of an ex-German and his daughter who got out of the country and into sanctuary amongst people who care about them. The acting by both Huller and Zischler is fine. It didn’t blow me away or anything, but it was okay. The story and message Pawlikowski is trying to get across in this short film is the main thing that needs to be seen. Along with the gorgeous Black and white cinematography by Zal. He turns every scene into a mastershot on screen. I’m a sucker for great cinematography, and this film, like the other Pawlikowski films in this trilogy, has. This was a beautiful movie to look at, which was juxtaposed to the destruction on the streets as a reminder of what happened. This was a fantastic chapter of his Cold War trilogy. 

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