Fatherland Review: Sandra Hüller Can't Save Boring and Uninteresting Period Piece
I'm currently covering the Vancouver Film Festival for Rogue Eye Media! Keep an eye on this website and all of our social media platforms all weekend for all my thoughts. So far we have reviews of The Debut, The Only Living Pickpocket In New York, Fjord, Club Kid, and Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother!
Director Paweł Pawlikowski (Cold War) returns with another detailed period piece in Fatherland, starring Sanüra Hüller.
Synopsis:
"In 1949, German writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika (Hüller) embark on a road trip across a Germany in ruins, from US-dominated Frankfurt to Soviet-controlled Weimar."
Cast:
Sandra Hüller, Hanns Zischler, August Diehl, Anna Madeley, Devid Striesow
Release Date:
In Limited Theaters October 23rd
Sandra Hüller Shines, Beautifully Shot
Although I'll get into my many problems with this film, it wasn't all bad. The first positive would be Sandra Hüller, who is having an absolute moment this year. From Project Hail Mary, Digger, Rose and now this, she's certainly going to have plenty of opportunities to receive awards recognition. Even if I didn't like this movie on the whole, I certainly think she deserves flowers for her performance. Her character spends most of the movie as an aside to the others in her life, especially her father who she's working as an assistant for. This is definitely indicative of the time period and you can see her being intentionally reserved for the first half of the film. Eventually she does have some scenes where she truly breaks down and that's the main brilliance of the performance. Her character is clearly a broken woman due to some of the tragedies that occur and that's a way to get me somewhat emotionally invested in a not great story.
Additionally, the movie looks beautiful. It's shot in 4:3 and black/white which feels fitting for the time period. There also just a lot very well-directed scenes and shots, which is expected from a veteran director like Pawlikowski. It truly does feel like a time capsule into this period and setting, which allows for a relatively easy watch even with the larger issues.
Plot Largely Uninteresting
We can go into all the intricate details and specifics on why Fatherland falls flat, but at the end of the day it's really just because the plot isn't all that interesting. The characters themselves don't bring a lot of intrigue and the story itself is relatively basic. We are following father and daughter on this journey around post-war Germany, with them grapping with the world around them as well as a traumatic event in their family. Aside from a few scenes here and there, we don't really go in depth into anything character wise. It's really just us as an audience following characters do relatively simple things. None of this trip itself features any interesting drama or conflict, it's just nonstop dialogue that doesn't provide any intrigue. The screenplay itself feels lacking - the conversations feel layered with subtext that is just too subtle to actually pull anyone in.
Another strange part of this story is that it feels like a lot of the more interesting events take place off screen. I've teased a few times in this review about the loss in the family that happens early on and that's supposed to be the emotional crux of the film. However, we only see that person for one scene and in no way feel invested in that relationship. This could have either used flashbacks to establish that more or just started the film with more of the life of the family. A big part of the story is set up to be the father going on his final tour, but that doesn't really become a factor into anything and it's not like we care about it anyway because we never get to see any of his previous tours. The script does nothing to really get us invested into anything character-wise and that's a tough fate when the film is meant to lean on those relationships.
Lack of Context Confuses
As I've mentioned, this film is a period piece set in a very specific part of history. The idea of post-war Germany plays a lot into the dialogue and the events of the plot. There's also the angle of breaking down certain scholars and literature of the time period. As someone who thinks himself to be relatively educated on world history and such, I was wildly confused on some of the topics brought up here. Zischler's character has probably 9-10 scenes discussing both of these things and I just found myself lost. This is probably where the overall thematic storytelling of the film is supposed to be found, but I can't say that I found any meaning in any of it. You'll find yourself zoning out by the third or fourth time that he starts to break down these topics in the same repetitive and lifeless way.
This kind of leads into the fact that it appears this film was made for a very specific group of people. Unless you have a vast knowledge and interest in some of these concepts, there's just no chance you can follow all that's going on. Some would see that as the problem of the viewer, but I'd heavily disagree. I've gone into plenty of period pieces with absolutely no idea of the history and still found myself loving them. A film like this should properly explain and paint a picture of the events they are trying to retell. However, they instead assume you already know the details and provide a baseline description with a few throw away lines. This leaves you not only not invested in the story, but simply not even understanding what the dialogue is meant to be discussing.
Runtime Too Short/Abrupt Ending
It may seem odd for me to complain about the runtime considering I didn't enjoy the movie, but it's almost baffling how abrupt the ending was here. I went into this not having any idea of how long it was, and when they settled on the final scene I thought it could have used 45 more minutes at least to wrap up the events. The ending scene is actually well done, but the setup wasn't good enough to justify it. It just feels like this movie featured 80 minutes of basic characters floating through an uninteresting life. There's no deep character work, no fascinating use of the setting or history, and generally nothing groundbreaking in any other elements you could think of. The short runtime is a direct cause of the weakness of this project, as it limited them completely in what they could do. Even then, if they spent the runtime they had focusing on crafting interesting characters and explaining what exactly was going on, it would definitely have been a much better product.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, this film just becomes forgettable in the grand scheme of things. There's always a chance someone who is deeply knowledgeable in 1940s literature or post-war Germany will love this, but the reaction from our audience was largely negative.
Rating: 2/5 Stars
Fatherland is ranked 76th out of the 85 new releases I've seen this year.
Editor's Note: I've only included the top 20 from my 2026 new releases list, for editing purposes.
2026 Ranked:
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