Fatherland trailer reveals Sandra Hüller in Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cannes-acclaimed drama

Fatherland, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, was released at this year's Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2026, and Pawlikowski has already won the Award for Best Director for the film. Mubi is going to release the film in theaters soon and has released a trailer.

The Fatherland trailer shows us father and daughter, Erika (played by Sandra Hüller) and Thomas Mann (played by Hanns Zischler), going on a road trip from Frankfurt to Weimar during the Cold War in 1949.

We see Thomas and Erika Mann's journey through a fragmented Germany in the Fatherland trailer

Thomas Mann is a German novelist who won the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature. In Fatherland, we will see how Thomas Mann and Erika Man's journey turned out when they went to Weimar through a Germany in ruins for Thomas to recieve a second Goethe Prize.

The Fatherland trailer opens with Erika driving the car and Thomas in the passenger seat. From the car's radio program, we can tell that in that particular scene, they are in the US-dominated Frankfurt and are likely making their way to Soviet-dominated Weimar. Thomas' inner voice asks him if he is on the side of Stalin or Mickey Mouse, aka, if he is on the side of America or the Soviet Union, countries that were then in the middle of the Cold War.

Erika was traveling with Thomas not just as his supportive daughter but also as his translator. We see Thomas being approached by Richard Wagner's grandsons, who praise him for writing good things about their grandfather, but Thomas makes a witty comment calling them out for their support of Adolf Hitler, who was a fan of Wagner's music.

The trailer then addresses one of the most crucial parts of Thomas' life, which is the fact that he left Germany for Switzerland when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. He left because he had different political views and was viewed as an enemy by the Nazi government. Mann had then moved to the United States in 1939 and had been living there since. In the Fatherland trailer, we see a journalist bring up Mann's escape from Germany and question him,

"What do you say to those who accuse you of betrayal or lack of solidarity?"

We will see Mann's response in Fatherland when it is released. The trailer also shows Erika saying that the journey from Frankfurt to Weimar is not a good idea, and she fears it might be her father's last journey due to the region's political climate. In a particularly moving moment in the trailer, Erika tells Thomas she wants to go home. He simply asks,

"Where is that?"

It makes one wonder where one's home lies when they face a fascist government that sees them as the enemy, are forced to flee, and face a war that tears apart countries and innocent lives. The trailer also shows us how difficult the journey is going to be for Thomas and Erika as they have to deal with people who still see them as traitors.

The film chronicles a journey that isn't just a road trip but a journey of returning to one's country that doesn't feel like one's own anymore.

Besides Hüller and Zischler, the film stars August Diehl as Klaus Mann, Devid Striesow as Johannes R. Becher, Anna Madeley as Betty Knox, David Menkin as Arthur Quint, Joachim Meyerhoff as Gustaf Gründgens, Enno Trebs as Wieland Wagner, Theo Trebs as Wolfgang Wagner, Daniel Wagner as Sergei Tiulpanov, and Milan Peschel as Armin Schaufelberger, among others.

Dimitri Rassam, Mario Gianani, Lorenzo Mieli, Ewa Puszczyńska, Jeanne Tremsal, Edward Berger, and Lorenzo Gangarossa are the producers behind the film. The production companies behind the film are Our Films, Extreme Emotions, Nine Hours, and Chapter2.

Mubi is going to release Fatherland in the USA in fall 2026.