Thomas is dying of a mysterious disorder that medical science is unable to identify despite numerous procedures and tests. Desperate and afraid, he contacts his younger brother Luc, whom he has not seen for a long time. Tentatively at first, Luc comes to support Thomas in the hospital, and then accompanies him to the seaside home where they spent their childhood. Famed opera, theater and film director Chereau has followed his Berlin prizewinner Intimacy with another work that could bear that title. His Brother portrays the newly close relationship of the once-estranged brothers as they become familiar with fast-approaching death and the agony of a disintegrating body. The uncompromising and often graphically clinical focus on a life spiraling out of control will not suit every taste, but viewers will ultimately be rewarded with fine performances and poignant emotional insights. Some may see it as a story about AIDS, although the dying brother is heterosexual. Regardless, it offers a brave and brutally frank look at the rituals of modern medicine as well as the journey the siblings take to rapprochement.