Paweł Pawlikowski’s ‘Fatherland’ to Open 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival

Fatherland by Oscar-winning director Paweł Pawlikowski, will open the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival, set to take place August 14 to 21, 2026.

The film tells the story of the relationship between the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann, played by Hanns Zischler, and his daughter Erika, played by Sandra Hüller, an 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 US-dominated Frankfurt to Soviet controlled Weimar. Returning home after sixteen years of exile in the US, Thomas Mann has to face not only a divided fatherland but also a deep fracture within his own family.

Fatherland world premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, where Pawlikowski won the Best Director award.

“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.

Pawlikowski has a long history with the Sarajevo Film Festival – his documentary Serbian Epics (1992) was screened at the festival, and his feature Cold War opened the 24th edition. In 2019, Pawlikowski was honored with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo, along with a retrospective of his work.

“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 relationship 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,” added Pawlikowski.