San Francisco Frontiers - German actress Huller feels war guilt 'every day'

The star of Oscar-winning Auschwitz-set "The Zone of Interest" is getting rave reviews for her turn in "Fatherland" by Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski about German literary genius Thomas Mann's return to his homeland in 1949.

"I feel the guilt every day, and also I never get bored of it," Huller told journalists at the Cannes Film Festival when asked about how she used her own feelings about Germany's Nazi past.

"I feel the guilt because it's necessary in order to act right," she added.

Huller plays Mann's writer daughter Erika who accompanies her father on his first trip to a divided and shattered Germany after the war, having lived in exile in the United States during the conflict.

Film bible Variety predicted prizes already, saying Huller's "GPS is set for next year's Oscar race" -- following her 2024 nomination for "Anatomy of a Fall" -- after "Fatherland" was given a five-minute ovation at its premiere in Cannes.

Pawlikowski, best known for "Ida", returned to Cannes with his first film since his Oscar-nominated "Cold War" in 2018.

It is one of a number of historical dramas playing at the festival that return to events of the 1930s and 1940s at a time when great power rivalry and the rise of far-right nationalism have led many historians to compare the current time with that troubled era.

"It's interesting that there's more and more films set in historical times," Pawlikowski said. "Sometimes, it's easier to talk about now with a distance."

"A lot of historical films that I watch, I notice they have a clear thesis... very often the characters in these films demonstrate something or explain something," he added. "I try to do the opposite. I try to just try to show how complicated it all is."

U.Campbell--SFF