Interview: Philip Gröning – My Brother’s Name Is Robert and He Is an Idiot | 2018 Berlin Intl. Film Festival

Evoking narrative similarities to The Police Officer’s Wife (2013), Philip Gröning‘s seventh film, My Brother’s Name Is Robert and He Is an Idiot is a marathon of philosophical ruminations enveloped within a 48-hour span and focused on the transformative experiences of a set of non identical twins. A provocative, explicit feature that merges violence, nudity and sex, this is a total contrast with conservative German filmmaker peers. Presented in Competition at the 2018 Berlin Intl. Film Festival, I had the chance to sit with Gröning to discuss topical items such his definition of philosophy and the conservatism found in contemporary German cinema.