Fatherland

The second foreign film in my double feature at the Broadway yesterday was Fatherland and I found it to be a subtle but powerful examination of national identity.  After fleeing Nazi persecution at the beginning of World War II, renowned author Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) returns to Germany in 1949 with his daughter Erika (Sandra Huller), who acts as his assistant, to receive the prestigious Goethe Award.  He gives speeches about what it means to be German and attends receptions in Frankfurt, which is controlled by the Allied powers, and in Weimar, which is occupied by the Soviets, and finds decadence in the former and intolerance in the latter (I loved the juxtaposition between the two receptions).  It is only when they stop at the ruins of a bombed-out church and hear "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" by Bach being played on a out-of-tune organ that they find the true soul of the fatherland.  There is also a subplot in which children, Erika and her brother Klaus (August Diehl), are alienated from their father and experience a loss which parallels the loss of country.  This adds emotional weight to the restrained storytelling, especially in the incredibly moving ending in which Thomas and Erika are finally able to come together.  The black and white cinematography is very dramatic and I loved the shot composition which keeps Thomas and Erika physically separated every time they appear together on screen because this makes the aforementioned resolution between the characters that much more poignant (and visually striking).  The performances are brilliant because, even though they are understated, both Zischler and Huller have incredible moments of catharsis.  I was particularly struck by a scene in which Erika speaks to her mother on the phone because her grief is conveyed by her physicality rather than dialogue.  This may be too austere for some but fans of Pawel Pawlikowski are sure to find it as compelling as I did.