In Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, the Nobel Prize-winning German novelist Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller), an actress, writer, and rally driver, set out in 1949 on a road trip through Germany. It’s their first time back in 16 years, after fleeing Nazi Germany and living in the U.S., and the country is still devastated by W.W. II and increasingly divided by the Cold War. The film won Pawlikowski Best Director at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. —Clara Scholl