“Fatherland,” the latest film by Oscar-winning Polish director Paweł Pawlikowski, will open the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival. The director will attend the gala screening on Aug. 14.
“Fatherland” had its world premiere at Cannes this year, earning Pawlikowski the best director award.
The film centers on the relationship between the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller) – actress, writer and rally driver. In the summer of 1949, at the height of the Cold War, father and daughter embark on a challenging and emotional road trip in a black Buick taking them across a Germany in ruins – from U.S.-dominated Frankfurt to Soviet-controlled Weimar. Returning home after 16 years of exile in the U.S., Thomas Mann has to face not only a divided fatherland, but also a deep fracture within his own family.
“It seems like the film suits Sarajevo Film Festival because it’s steeped in history and in conflict, in situations which are still within living memory in Bosnia. It feels like a good context to show the film. And I have a relationship with the Sarajevo Film Festival that stretches back for decades,” said Pawlikowski.
Popular on Variety
His documentary film “Serbian Epics” (1992) was screened in the early days of the Sarajevo Film Festival. His feature “Cold War” opened the 24th Sarajevo Film Festival. The following year, in 2019, Pawlikowski was honored with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo, alongside a retrospective of his work presented within the Tribute To program.
Pawlikowski, highlighting his many years of cooperation with Sarajevo Film Festival founder Mirsad Purivatra and festival’s director Jovan Marjanović, said, “This is a festival that I feel very close to. I value the relationships I formed in Sarajevo with Miro, with Jovan. It is a kind of real relationships with people who are film lovers, but also have a sense of history. My films, especially the last three which are steeped in history, have a very good home there. I’m very happy to be back and very thrilled that it’s the opening film of the festival.”
Pawlikowski began his career directing award-winning documentaries before moving into narrative features with “Last Resort” (2000) and “My Summer of Love” (2004), both BAFTA-winning films.
His film “Ida” (2013) won the Academy Award for best international feature film, the first Polish film to do so. It also won five European Film Awards, including best film, best director and best screenwriter.
“Cold War” (2018) premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where Pawlikowski was awarded the best director award, and later received three Academy Award nominations, including best director. It also won five awards at the 2018 European Film Awards, including best film, best director and best screenwriter.
The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival will take place from Aug. 14 to 21.
