Returning to Cannes after eight years, Paweł Pawlikowski took home his second Best Director award. Fatherland marks the conclusion of his unofficial trilogy exploring post-war time and memory. In 1949, Thomas Mann visits his divided homeland. True to its title, the film is a story about Mann as a father and about the land of Germany itself. Visiting both West and East Germany, Mann gives speeches advocating for, "one good Germany, humanity, life, and love," yet his idealistic rhetoric rings hollow to the people of a fractured nation. Meanwhile, around the same time, his son Klaus commits suicide. Though unrevealed, the relationship between the father whose sexual identity is suppressed, the daughter striving to conceal it, and the openly gay son cast a dark shadow across the film. In his twilight years, Mann stands caught between the sorrow of a land striving for hope and reconstruction, and the mourning of an unforgiven son. Following the director’s previous work, Bach is once again featured in the ending. Bach’s music, acting as a divine touch comforting a man confronted with the collapse of faith, brings forth an outpouring of tears. It is a miraculous 80 minutes. (LEE Yong Cheol)