Mein Bruder heißt Robert und ist ein Idiot (2018)

Southern Germany, in summer: Over a weekend, 19-year-old Elena prepares for her oral philosophy Abitur exam, which is two days away. Her twin brother Robert helps her, in exchange for copious amounts of beer. They study in an idyllic meadow overlooking the Alps, near a lonely gas station on a country road where they get their supplies. The gas station apparently played a major role in their childhood, too: their heights have been marked over the years in its private quarters. The siblings have a love-hate relationship. Elena is intelligent and domineering, and calls her brother stupid or dumb, though this does not seem to be true, since he supplies most of the philosophical ideas for their study sessions, which she merely writes down. Robert, who has been held back a year at school, longs to leave his provincial home. He is also in love with Elena’s best friend, Cecilia. He dodges Elena’s questions about whether he has slept with Cecilia. Rituals, twin games, bets, outbursts of hatred and tender closeness, shared swims in a forest lake, a visit from their younger brother Florian, who calls them in for dinner, and philosophical discussions—especially about Martin Heidegger’s theses and Augustine’s understanding of time—alternate over the two days. Both Elena and Robert know that this stage of their lives will soon be over and that they will go their separate ways. Elena bets Robert that she will have sex with a man before the exam. If Elena loses the bet, she will give Robert the car she is supposed to receive for passing her final exams; otherwise, he has to ask her for something he wants. Elena starts flirting with gas station customers. One such attempt ends in an attempted rape in the customer restroom. Elena overpowers the man while Robert, helpless outside the door, hears what happens. The following night, Robert, extremely drunk, vomits and falls asleep in the gas station’s shop. Elena goes on an outing with Erich, the gas station attendant, who has a fatherly relationship with the two of them. But when she tries to seduce Erich, he firmly refuses. Meanwhile, locked inside the gas station, Robert watches in disappointment as Cecilia arrives with friends and kisses another boy. The story takes an unexpected turn when Elena and Robert playfully stage a robbery of Erich, and he accidentally suffers a head injury that leaves him temporarily apathetic. They tie him up and gag him in the gas station’s private quarters, and later force him to give them the gas station’s register code. Elena wins her bet by raping the defenseless Erich in front of Robert. Robert finds a loaded gun in the cash register and at first aims it at passing cars. The two siblings then undress and have passionate sex on the floor of the brightly lit shop. When Erich, still tied up and now conscious again, urges them to put an end to the absurd spectacle, Robert hands the gun to his sister. Elena plays Erich her favorite song—the French chanson “La Javanaise” by Serge Gainsbourg—and then shoots him in the restroom. In doing so, she damages the cistern, and over the next few minutes the gas station is flooded with blood-red water. The siblings then playfully shoot at each other in the shop, as if the gun were not real, causing further destruction. The next day, Robert uses the gun to steal a sports car from a gas station customer and drives off in it. Later, exhausted, Elena shows up for her oral Abitur exam, where she speaks about the topic “What is a melody?” as well as the concept of time. Images of the now deserted and run-down gas station are shown alongside this.