Sandra Hueller says Cannes entry 'Fatherland' makes Germany's post-war trauma tangible

CANNES, France, May 15 (Reuters) - German actor Sandra Hueller said Germany's post-war trauma is made tangible even to people who did not live through it by "Fatherland," Polish-born director Pawel Pawlikowski's Cannes Film Festival entry about novelist Thomas Mann's return home.

The film was shot in Poland using period-authentic sets, which contributed to the "presence of history," she told Reuters on Friday, a day after the premiere.

"It's something that I think is still in our bodies from the destruction that happened in World War Two, and that is recognised when you watch this film," said the actor who starred in the blockbuster "Project Hail Mary."

"It kind of touches you in this place, even if you were not present at that time."

Set in 1949, "Fatherland" follows Mann, played by Hanns Zischler, as he visits Germany for the first time since fleeing the Nazis to accept the Goethe Prize, named after another of Germany's greatest writers.

CHALLENGING POLITICAL BOUNDARIES

Mann, who had already won the Nobel Prize for Literature, in an effort to rise above the Cold War binary of communism and capitalism, has decided to travel to Weimar, in East Germany, as well as Frankfurt, Goethe's birthplace, in the West.

He is accompanied by his daughter Erika, played by Hueller, who is struck by grief after the death of her brother, Klaus. Outwardly, her father is impassive.

"It wasn't a world where people talk about their emotions like today," said Pawlikowski, whose previous Cannes entry "Cold War" won the best director prize before he went on to be nominated for an Oscar.

Pawlikowski, speaking to journalists earlier Friday, added that he wanted to show the complexities of history, instead of pushing an overly simple narrative.

"I just try to show how complicated it all is, which I think is a very healthy thing to tell people today," he added.

"If you know absolutely that your narrative is right, it's dangerous."

"Fatherland," which was shot in black and white and is in German and other languages, received rave reviews. The Guardian newspaper gave it five out of five stars. It is one of 22 films competing for Cannes' top prize, the Palme d'Or, which will be given out on May 23.

(Reporting by Miranda Murray and Hanna Rantala; editing by Barbara Lewis)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 1:55 PM.