Tussen Broers

A beautiful, deeply moving film about the tragicomic experiences of two older brothers in search of traces of their father. A particularly compelling documentary about the unconditional loyalty and love of the bond between brothers, despite everything life may throw at you.

In Tussen Broers, filmmaker Tom Fassaert follows his father Rob and Rob’s older brother René—two elderly men who could hardly be more different, yet remain inseparably connected. René lives a reclusive life in a house slowly filled with objects and memories. Rob is his regular visitor, conversation partner, and anchor to the outside world. Their time together follows a familiar pattern of care and resistance, sharpness and humor, closeness and distance.

Fassaert observes their encounters with visible patience and affection, finding an unexpected lightness in their friction. After their mother’s death, the brothers decide to set out together in search of traces of their father, who abandoned them as young children and disappeared without a trace. Their road trip takes them through archives, landscapes, and conversations that gradually reveal more than just facts. Along the way, the relationship between the brothers shifts, and their shared past takes on new meaning.

As in his previous film A Family Affair (2015), Tussen Broers moves with the ease of fiction and the honesty of documentary. Fassaert films with a keen eye for composition and rhythm, and with deep empathy for his subjects. The result is a warm, tragicomic, and profoundly human portrait of brotherhood, in which the search for a lost father grows into a larger question: is it possible to leave the weight of your family history behind? Can you choose to do things differently?