Thomas Mann returns to his 'Fatherland' in this practically flawless film

Sandra Hüller plays Erika and Hanns Zischler is Thomas Mann in Fatherland.Mubi hide caption Artists are notoriously self-important, but a handful carry themselves as if they were the Matterhorn — stony, daunting, towering over the concerns of ordinary mortals.

One of these was the majestic German writer Thomas Mann.After the teenage Susan Sontag paid him a reverential visit in the late '40s, she wrote in her diary, "I interrogated God this evening" — although, in truth, she'd found the man to be as disappointing as his work was inspiring.This Olympian figure lies at the center of Fatherland, an exquisite gem about Mann's 1949 return to Germany after 11 years in America shunning the Nazis.

Made by Paweł Pawlikowski, it's the third in his trilogy of films set in mid-century Mitteleuropa that includes the Oscar-winning Ida.Clocking in at a taut 82 minutes, this highly literate film wields a feathery touch as it weaves together a family drama, a portrait of post-war Germany, a taste of Cold War wrangling and the intersection of personal and historical guilt.It begins with an intimate phone conversation between Mann's daughter Erika, played by the great Sandra Hüller, and her adored brother Klaus (August Diehl), a writer who's gifted and gay and despondent.

Calling from her parents' modernist villa in Pacific Palisades, Calif., — he's in a messy bedroom in Cannes — Erika urges him to join her on their father's upcoming visit to Germany to accept the Goethe Prize.But Klaus has bitter feelings toward their remote and censorious father whose colossal shadow dwarfs them both.Played by the shrewd veteran Hanns Zischler, Mann begins his tour of the homeland with Erika serving as a glorified assistant.

She runs interference, edits his speeches, even shaves him.He's as pampered as a panda.

In historical fact, Mann made this trip with his wor...