Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Fatherland' competes for Palme d'Or at Cannes

Pawel Pawlikowski, director of 'Ida' and 'Cold War', is competing for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival with his new film 'Fatherland'. The film opens with a striking black-and-white static shot of Klaus Mann, son of Nobel Prize-winning author Thomas Mann, naked on the floor of his Cannes hotel room in 1949, surrounded by traces of drugs and sex. He tells his sister on the phone that Germany invented a language only to lie. The line 'Stalin or Mickey Mouse?' encapsulates the Cold War wounds explored in the film. Pawlikowski's adaptation of 'The Magician', a biography of Thomas Mann, is described as refined, intelligent, and concise. The film is noted for its 80-minute runtime and its ability to condense complex themes.