Guardian of my Brother (WT)

Gregor, 32, is in perfect control of his life. He is happily married and his job as an assistant physician in a big city hospital is the right spot for him. He is a good physician, friendly, ambitious and keeping his professional distance. And he regards himself as quite superior of his little brother Pietschi, 29. Pietschi: meandering through life spontaneously and without a goal, affable, easily charming people but never able to hold them. No regular income, no long-term relationships. Just an endless chain of far-too-young women, coming and going one after the other. Like every year’s Pentecost, the two brothers go on a sailing trip. To Gregor, everything appears as usual. Until Pietschi disappears without a trace.

Gregor’s daily life goes on. The unsettling feeling stays. Gregor leaves messages for Pietschi – no reaction. Coincidentally he receives a key for Pietschi’s apartment. He contacts old friends and relatives, asks about Pietschi, without telling anybody what really haunts him. He has to realize how little he knows about his brother’s life. How much he misjudged him.

Signs of evidences come up indicating that Pietschi might have committed suicide. Gregor tries to suppress them as good as possible – which means increasingly less successfully. He tries to cover the pain and the bad conscience, which he does not allow himself to admit, with pointless actions: He wants to get closer to his lost brother, closer to the professional as well as to the private Pietschi.

Gregor’s life starts to suffer. He gets lousy and insecure at his job, he estranges himself from his wife, he lies to others and to himself.

Instead he reads Pietschi’s mail, has sex with Pietschi’s ex, wears Pietschi’s  clothes. Finally, the all-too-reasonable Gregor is threatened to get lost completely in Pietschi’s life and suicide.