FATHERLAND (2026): A quiet beautiful rage

movie review
Written By Christian Tizya
Black-and-white still from Fatherland a woman in a dark blouse and an older man in a light suit sit side by side at a table, hands clasped, with glasses of liquor in front of them. A man wearing a ceremonial sash sits out of focus behind them

Fatherland (2026), dir. Paweł Pawlikowski. Photographed by Łukasz Żal. Courtesy of MUBI

Dir. Paweł Pawlikowski | 82 min | Poland/Germany/Italy/France

A stark, quiet post-WWII drama about Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) returning to Germany after more than a decade away, caught between two warring ideologies. He can't afford to show vulnerability to either side, so the film becomes a road trip toward reconciling that, with the emotion simmering just beneath the surface.

At 82 minutes it's lean, but the black-and-white photography by Łukasz Żal is possibly the most beautiful I've seen in a film, period. It's not for everybody: classic European art house, jarring in places, and gorgeous to look at. You'll be thinking about it for days afterward.

Christian Tizya https://watsonstreetpictures.com
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