Summertime. In the midst of undulating cornfields next to a country petrol station, Robert is helping Elena prepare for her final school philosophy exam. These twins live in a world of their own. Sometimes they are tender to each other, other times quite violent. Robert likes to drink beer and talk about Brentano and Heidegger: ‘The sense of being is time.’ Certain rituals, games, and a love of betting connect them. Elena is jealous of her best friend and wants to know if Robert has slept with her but he’s not telling. She challenges him to a bet: ‘I’ll sleep with someone – anyone – before I graduate.’ If she loses, he gets the VW Golf. If she wins, he has to ask her for something. It doesn’t matter what, but it can’t be an object. And so they have 48 hours left in order to get their heads around philosophy and win a bet. Their game grows more serious as the end of their childhood draws nearer and nearer.
Philip Gröning describes a period of upheaval on the cusp of adulthood, in a film whose rhythm is determined by the twins’ subjective sense of time. This last summer together could go on forever. But the more they battle to become independent of each other, the more they lose themselves in their symbiotic relationship.