Survive

After years of criminal and self-destructive behavior, 27-year-old Leon is at last trying to rid himself of his heroin addiction in a residential clinic. He publishes a vlog about his experiences and tells his therapists what they want to hear, but actually he’s totally fed up with life. On the other hand, his father Hans-Joachim, who's 50 years older, is brimming with zest for life, despite his aging body. That’s why this landscape artist wants to become immortal, as a “homo digitalis.” He’s using a chatbot loaded with journal extracts in an attempt to create a digital version of himself.

When Leon is released on leave from rehab, he visits his father, who he hasn’t seen for a long time. Rather than underscoring the differences between father and son, filmmakers Lara Milena Brose and Kilian Armando Friedrich let the images speak for themselves. These scenes make it painfully clear how self-hatred is intertwined with self-obsession, how life is intertwined with survival, and how different parents and children can be.