I saw this film at the Rotterdam film festival 2013, where it was part of the Bright Future section. The director as well as the actor who played the older brother were present, and enlightened us about the making of this film. Remarkable is that only subsequent events were outlined (20 pages) prior to shooting, but there was no script in the normal sense and all moves, gestures and dialogs are improvised. The shooting took 15 days, and at most two takes per scene proved sufficient to arrive at the surprising result we saw.
In the beginning I was not thinking much of it, given the home situation where it all started: two brothers at least differing 10 years in age, plus a mother who was mostly hidden in her bedroom. The older brother was often away and busy with attending parties or recovering from hangovers, while the younger brother had not much to do and was bored to his teeth. This clearly demonstrated them to be in very different stages in their lives, and as such having not much in common nor any interesting topics of conversation.
However, a spontaneous action of the older brother to go camping with his younger brother forms the start of an interesting journey, though initially only enlarging the psychological gap between them. The younger brother starts wandering through the woods, leaving his older brother call for him and letting him much time to worry. Eventually they find each other. Remembering some things from their past, suddenly triggers a process that brings them together. They come to speak about their father who apparently disappeared out of their sight, and leaving the mother mourning all day long about loosing him. All those are facts we viewers did not know about, but explain the home situation very well now. In the end, when back at home, we see that their moods even have a positive effect on their mother.
All in all, the result is unbelievable. Its inclusion in the Bright Future section of the Rotterdam film festival 2013 was fully justified. Given that it was "only" a graduation project, we can only hope for more to come from this director.
