Son frère

Chéreau followed Intimacy with another stripped-down relationship drama about the shaky, sporadic connection between emotional and physical life. Here, the relationship is between two estranged brothers: one straight, the other gay; one healthy, the other incurably ill. With equal parts compassion and clear-eyed observation, Chéreau documents the pair’s extended string of hospital visits, surgical procedures, seaside retreats and moments of intimacy. A remarkably frank look at illness and death, Son frère finds Chéreau returning to several of his recurring obsessions: the emotional distance between people, especially those—friends, siblings, lovers—who are allegedly closest to one another, the tension between romantic and familial commitments, and the limitations and frailties of the body.