Cannes (France) (AFP) – German Oscar-winning actress Sandra Huller said Friday she felt guilt for Germany’s role in World War II “every day” as she discussed her latest role in a historical drama.
The star of Auschwitz-set “The Zone of Interest” is winning rave reviews for her turn in “Fatherland” by Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski about German literary genius Thomas Mann’s return to his homeland in 1945.
“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 daughter Erika who accompanies her father on his first trip to divided and shattered Germany after the war, having lived in exile in the United States during the conflict.
Film bible Variety said Huller’s “GPS is set for next year’s Oscar race” — following her 2024 win for “Anatomy of a Fall” — after the film was given a five-minute ovation at its premiere in Cannes.
Pawlikowski, best known for “Ida”, returned to Cannes with his first film since “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 40s 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.”