Jacob's Brother on AllMovie

Blood may be thicker than water, but that doesn't mean it mixes easily in this comedy from first-time director Daniel Walta. Lorenz Goldt (Christoph Maria Herbst) is a television chat show host with an outsized ego and an older brother Jakob (Klaus J. Behrendt) he hasn't spoken with in years. However, Lorenz gets the bad news that his mother has contracted Alzheimer's disease, and when he has to pass the information along to Jakob, he takes it as a sign that they should bury the hatchet. However, when the brothers set out on a road trip, Lorenz and Jakob discover their personalities don't mesh any better than they ever did, and things only get worse when they find themselves stranded in a small farming community. En route, Lorenz and Jakob pick up a hitch-hiker, disaffected teenage runaway Lara (Sophie Rogall), whose adolescent angst only fuels the tension. Jakobs Bruder (aka Jacob's Brother) received its American premiere at the 2008 Berlin and Beyond Film Festival in San Francisco.