Fatherland (12A)

At the height of the Cold War, celebrated writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter – actress, writer, and rally driver – Erika (Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall) embark on a road trip across a divided Germany in ruins, travelling from the Allied-occupied city of Frankfurt to Soviet-controlled Weimar. 

Paweł Pawlikowski’s exacting, richly intelligent story of exile and betrayal is another superb study of post-war Europe, and the weight of its history on individual lives, in the same vein as Ida (2013) and Cold War (2018). It’s brilliantly performed by Zischler and an extraordinary Hüller and shot in exquisite black and white by cinematographer Łukasz Żal.