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Filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski spoke with Meduza about “Fatherland,” his film about Thomas Mann’s 1949 journey through postwar Germany. He said the Cold War is easier for him to understand than today’s world, which feels like science fiction, while cautioning that historical parallels are never exact.
Filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski says today’s world feels like a science-fiction story, as he discusses his new film “Fatherland” and its postwar European setting in an interview published by Meduza on October 26. The film follows German writer Thomas Mann’s journey through postwar Germany and is opening in theaters worldwide after festival screenings and selection as Poland’s Oscar entry.
In the interview with journalist Anton Dolin, Pawlikowski described how his interest in Mann grew from reading a biography sent by the film’s German producers. The biography covered too much to adapt as a whole, he said, but Mann’s 1949 trip to Germany caught his attention. Pawlikowski then consulted Mann’s diaries and letters, the memoirs of his driver, and writings by Mann’s daughter Erika, who accompanied him on a separate trip the following year.
Pawlikowski said he condensed the material into a five-day road movie, drawing on events and family relationships that interested him. The film centers on real people and historical events, a departure from his earlier work that he said came about through research and a series of coincidences. He rejected the idea that “Fatherland” was planned as the final part of a trilogy with “Ida” and “Cold War,” saying critics had imposed a neat structure on films that developed differently.
The filmmaker linked Mann’s story to the present but warned against treating the eras as interchangeable. He said postwar Europe’s competing visions of the future and the collapse of political systems resonated today, while stressing that the modern world is harder for him to interpret. “Analogies are never exact,” he told Meduza, pointing to the difference between the information environment of Mann’s time and today’s digital bubbles.
Mann’s Story Meets Present-Day Uncertainty
Pawlikowski’s comments offer a view of how a filmmaker is approaching a period that has drawn comparisons with contemporary Europe. Rather than presenting the past as a direct guide to current events, he uses Mann’s return to postwar Germany to examine political division, public responsibility and family strain. His caution about historical parallels matters: the interview records his personal reading of the present, not a claim that today’s conditions replicate the 1940s.
The film also places a family drama inside a larger historical rupture. Pawlikowski told Meduza that Mann tried to offer common ground through culture and humanist values, but said that effort did not succeed. He also connected Mann’s public role with the personal crises of his children, particularly Klaus Mann’s difficulties as a writer in exile. That tension gives the film a focus beyond a conventional account of a celebrated author’s life.
For audiences, the release brings a new historical drama from the director of “Ida” and “Cold War” into theaters after screenings at several major festivals. Its reception and its selection as Poland’s Oscar entry place it among the season’s high-profile European films, while the interview clarifies that Pawlikowski’s purpose is not simply to complete a planned trilogy or deliver a one-to-one political analogy.
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From Mann’s 1949 Journey to Film
Pawlikowski said the initial proposal arrived as a biography of Thomas Mann, but he found the full span of the writer’s life too broad for a feature film. His research narrowed around a particular episode: Mann’s visit to Germany in 1949, followed by another journey the next year with Erika. He used diaries, letters, memoirs and Erika’s writing as sources for shaping the story.
“Fatherland” follows Pawlikowski’s earlier films “Ida” (2013) and “Cold War” (2018), which also use period settings and carefully composed images. He told Meduza that he did not set out to make a trilogy. He described “Ida” as a response to his frustration with conventional filmmaking, and said its black-and-white photography, static shots and minimalist approach suited the story. He has continued working with cinematographer Łukasz Żal, composing shots with restraint.
The film premiered at Cannes, Telluride, Toronto, New York and London, according to the Meduza report, and was selected as Poland’s Oscar entry. The report says it is now opening in theaters worldwide. Those milestones establish the film’s release context; they do not by themselves establish its eventual awards prospects or audience response.
““We’ve ended up in what feels like a science-fiction story.””
— Paweł Pawlikowski, speaking to Meduza
Where the Historical Parallels Stop
Pawlikowski did not identify specific present-day events as direct equivalents to the political conditions in the film. He said he could not fully understand what is happening in the world now and distinguished contemporary digital bubbles from the political divisions of Mann’s era. The interview therefore presents his interpretation and uncertainty, not an expert assessment of current geopolitics.
The interview and supplied report do not provide details on the film’s box-office performance, audience response, or its precise release schedule in each country. They also do not establish whether “Fatherland” will receive further awards recognition. Its selection as Poland’s Oscar entry is confirmed in the report, but the outcome of the awards process remains unknown.
The Film’s Theatrical and Awards Run
“Fatherland” is opening in theaters worldwide after its festival screenings, according to Meduza. Its next public milestones will depend on local release schedules and the Oscar process following its selection as Poland’s entry. The source material does not specify dates for individual markets or provide later awards results.
For Pawlikowski, the immediate focus is the film’s release and the questions it raises about Mann, postwar Germany and the limits of comparisons with the present. Any further response from the director, audiences or awards bodies would add information not included in the interview report.
Key Questions
What is Paweł Pawlikowski’s new film about?
“Fatherland” follows Thomas Mann’s journey through postwar Germany. Pawlikowski told Meduza that he shaped the film around Mann’s 1949 visit and related family history, condensing material into a five-day road movie.
Why does Pawlikowski say the present feels like science fiction?
He said the world today is too complicated for him to fully understand. The phrase is his description of contemporary uncertainty, not a claim that current events match the Cold War period.
Is “Fatherland” the final film in a planned trilogy?
No. Pawlikowski said he did not plan a trilogy with “Ida” and “Cold War.” He suggested that the idea of a neatly connected trilogy came from critics’ interpretations of the films.
Has “Fatherland” been selected as Poland’s Oscar entry?
Yes. Meduza’s report says the film was selected as Poland’s Oscar entry. The report does not state the eventual awards outcome.
Source: rss
