Director: Pawel Pawlikowski

Stars: Sandra Hüller, Hans Zischler, August Diehl

Clocking in at just over eighty minutes, but containing multitudes, the third entry in Polish writer-director Pawlikowski’s trilogy of historical films, following ‘Ida’ and ‘Cold War’, is a dramatisation of a trip taken by writer Thomas Mann and his writer/actor daughter Erika (played by Zischler and Hüller respectively), on their return to Germany in 1949. There Mann is due to collect a Goethe Prize, a prestigious cultural award in both the West and the East. On being warned by journalists in West Germany that he will be persecuted in Weimar for his beliefs, Thomas states that Goethe’s work does not recognise borders. While her father makes these lofty pronouncements, Erika observes with distaste the hypocrisy in West Germany as ex-Nazi collaborators whitewash their reputations. In one electric scene she has a bitter exchange with her ex-husband Gustaf Gründgens, an actor, allegedly very close to Goebbels and said to be the subject of ‘Mephisto’—a novel by Erika’s brother Klaus Mann about an actor who worked with the Nazis. On arriving in Weimar, shortly after being informed of a tragic incident, father and daughter observe how severely dissent is dealt with in East Germany when two critics of the regime are dragged away. Despite a modest running time, this is a thematically rich piece with potent musings on national identity, the responsibility and relevance of art to a devastated world, and a Germany trying to rebuild itself from scratch. It is also a keenly observed study of fraught family relations; the title could also refer to its depiction of life in the shadow of a revered parent. Hüller is excellent conveying the broiling emotions of her reluctant returnee. Equally impressive in a more muted performance is Zischler, his Mann initially impenetrable behind the public face. The pristine black and white photography from longtime Pawlikowski collaborator Łukasz Żal is gorgeous.

David Willoughby

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