After spending years uncovering his family’s complicated dynamics in “A Family Affair,” Dutch filmmaker Tom Fassaert thought he was done turning the camera on his home life. Alas, soon after his grandmother’s death, his father gave him a call to say he was about to intervene in the life of his estranged brother, and Fassaert knew he was far from done. The result of that call is “Between Brothers,” world premiering at the Rotterdam Film Festival 11 years after “A Family Affair” opened another major Dutch festival, IDFA.
The intimate documentary sees Fassaert observe the relationship between his father, Rob, and Rob’s older brother René, both in their 70s. Starting as a more traditionally structured recounting of their past with the help of a wealth of archival material, “Between Brothers” shifts into a road movie once the brothers decide to solve the mysteries around their parentage and the years they spent in an orphanage when they were kids. Watch an exclusive trailer below:
Speaking with Variety ahead of the festival, the director says he is “quite nervous” about sharing the film with audiences for the first time. “I made a personal film before this and wasn’t prepared for what would happen to me emotionally when I let the film go into the world. I was so focused on creating the story and dealing with the problems in editing that I wasn’t aware of how it would resonate with me after letting the film go. I think the same is happening again now.”
Fassaert recalls how, during the making of “A Family Affair,” there was hardly any contact between his psychologist dad and his brother, who struggled with mental health issues throughout all of his life. “When his mother died, he felt this chapter in his life was over and it was his responsibility not to transfer trauma onto the next generation. But what did he mean with those words? That triggered me emotionally and philosophically. Can you really step away from your past and do it differently?”
The director points out that there were a lot of “mysteries” surrounding not only René himself but also his relationship to Rob, including a major secret about their lineage that this article will not spoil. All of these elements, mixed with the fact that Fassaert himself was about to become a father for the first time, ended up creating the perfect storm for the making of the film.
Asked about the main differences between making “Between Brothers” and “A Family Affair,” the filmmaker says he felt his latest would be “easier.” “I thought I would be able to have more of a distance. I had learned there is a risk with putting a camera in your own family, and the ethical traps you can fall into. There’s a responsibility in every documentary when it comes to the relationship between you and your protagonist. A camera could also be a weapon. You could easily kill a character through manipulation. When that character is in your family, it’s an even bigger responsibility.”
“Between Brothers,” courtesy of IFFR
With “Between Brothers,” however, the director had one key advantage: access to audience feedback following his previous film. Fassaert recalls how audience members told him about the way the film broaches his grandmother’s narcissism, a notion perpetuated for many years in his family. “It was never my intention to kill my grandma with that film.” With “Between Brothers,” that preoccupation shifted to his portrayal of René.
“I wanted to have a certain sense of equality between them,” he adds. “I wanted the film not to be only about René’s chaos and hoarding, but also how he can not only reflect on himself and his life but also criticize Rob deeply and profoundly.”
This particular challenge proved easier to overcome once the film hit the road, when a “shift” happened between the two brothers. “Even though my father is literally behind the steering wheel, it is René who’s steering us.” That dynamic allowed Fassaert to inject a hefty dose of humor in the film, closely observing the bickering between the two brothers. “The humor is also a coping mechanism, a way to survive all that. I hope there is also laughter when I screen the film.”
Now that he has made two films about his family, are there any future plans to continue that creative throughline? Yes, Fassaert responds, somewhat reluctantly. “I wasn’t a father when I started ‘Between Brothers’ and, during the almost 10-year process of making the film, I became a father to two children. I’ve always dreamt of it being a triptych of personal films. Obviously, now that we are at number two, you can imagine what number three might be. All I can tell you right now is that it is a maybe, but it might turn into a certainty because I am really hungry and I have footage I feel very confident about.”
Having been platformed by two major Dutch festivals, the filmmaker says he is “very happy” to have such a “healthy industry” in his home country despite the “vulnerability of documentary filmmaking.”
“Today, there is more exposure of documentary thanks to the bigger [streaming] platforms, yet I feel this also means these platforms are taking fewer risks with films,” he adds. “There’s a big filter now on what is being produced and that is also influencing filmmakers artistically. I still feel very confident because people need stories and these festivals prove there are still audiences for what we are making, even though there are challenges.”
“Between Brothers” is produced by Een van de Jongens and Clin d’Oeil Films. Bantam Film holds distribution rights in the Netherlands, with Een van de Jongens handling world sales.
