‘Fatherland’ and belonging to a country divided

At the opening of “Fatherland,” Klaus Mann (August Diehl) sits on a dirty floor, drugs strewn about, his lover still asleep as he talks to his sister, Ericka (Sandra Hüller) on the phone. It’s summer, 1949, and Ericka is trying to persuade Klaus to return to Germany, just for a little while – their father, the celebrated German novelist Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler), is receiving a Goethe Prize.  But Klaus has no desire to return home. There’s been a question that’s needling him lately, one he feels other people are trying to force him to confront in the wake of World War II. He left Germany because of his hatred of Nazis, but is German nonetheless – and now, Germany has been divided in half by the Americans and the Soviets, and all anyone wants to know is: which side are you on?  “Stalin, or Mickey Mouse?” Klaus says derisively.  Sandra Hüller and Hanns Zischler in “Fatherland.” (Photo courtesy of Mubi) This question is one that the other two members of the Mann family will