Jakob took his life. He had emigrated to Portugal, yet was stricken with homesickness and longing. Two years later in Are You Sleeping, Brother Jakob? his four brothers, including director Stefan Bohun, take a trip into the past. Their different memories about the late brother gradually shape a family portrait in which everyone, even as adults, has had yet to find their place.
Are You Sleeping, Brother Jakob? is a very considerate, personal film about both farewell and reunion. The scattered archival footage, showing the brothers as children and teens – on mountain tops in summer, swimming together, wildly dancing and cavorting – impart an unforeseen levity. The search starts in the Tyrolean valley Lareintal and eventually ends in a hotel room in Porto with the realisation that this is not particularly a film about sadness but the necessity of grief. And about finding those who accompany us in life.
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