My Brother's Name Is Robert and He Is an Idiot

A philosophical feature film by Philip Gröning

With "My Brother's Name Is Robert and He Is an Idiot" Philip Gröning ("The Police Officer's Wife", "Into Great Silence") presented the most hotly debated competition entry of the Berlinale 2018: uncompromising cinematic art about the essence of time, about philosophy, life, sex and death. Embedded in the turmoil of puberty – and with a disturbing twist. His images between beauty and cruelty show contradictions and provoke controversy. The novelist Julia Zange in her first cinema role and Josef Mattes.

Summer heat. A gas station in the country, cornfields, wind and distant mountains. The twins Robert and Elena lie in the grass and prepare for Elena's final exams in philosophy. For 48 hours the summery meadow, a forest, a lake are their universe. For 48 hours the gas station is their only contact to the outside world. 48 hours to break away from childhood and the symbiosis of the twin world. Twin games, betting, talking philosophy. And the more they struggle to get away from each other, the more they are drawn to their shared world. When the weekend is over and the sun rises again over the gas station, nothing is the same anymore.

Being too much one to be two.
And not enough to be one to stay one.
End of childhood.
End of the world.

"My Brother's Name Is Robert and He Is an Idiot" is a German-French-Swiss production by Philip Gröning Filmproduktion, Bavaria Pictures and L Films (Paris) in co-production with BR, WDR, arte and in collaboration with Ventura Films and RSI. Supported by Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, MFG Baden-Württemberg, DFFF, FFA, BKM, Eurimages, Minitraité and Centre National de la Cinématographie. Distributed by W-film Distribution.