The Other Half (2007)

Hamid, a 40-year old Algerian who lives in Brussels, believes he is being tailed by the police. He works as a courier for an illegal network suspected of financing terrorist acts. When he receives a phone call from his brother Louis, who has grown up separately from him and whom he has not seen for 35 years, he suspects that the police are behind the call. Nevertheless, he travels to Switzerland to meet Louis in the hope of seeing his mother. She, however, is no longer alive. When Hamid finds this out, he wants to return to Brussels, but the two brothers run into a police checkpoint and Hamid is interrogated. The police want information on the network and about his work as a courier. He refuses, is locked up and it is only the next day that he is released on bail. He now knows that the police are in fact after him, but what he really wants to discover is what role Louis, who has paid his bail, really plays in the whole affair. Hamid is free, thanks to the bail, but he is not allowed to leave Switzerland, and is dependent on his brother. Louis not only wants to know the reason for Hamid's arrest, but also the reason for their separation, their father's identity and why the family broke apart. The confrontation between the two becomes a struggle for both closeness and distance, overshadowed by mistrust and rivalry. With different weapons, they also fight over Isa, Louis' girlfriend, who is finding it progressively harder to relate to Louis and feels attracted to Hamid. This difficult fight over several rounds is necessary in order for the two brothers to show their colors and open up so that they are able, at the very end, to meaningfully engage with one another. Although they have grown up in different cultures, they are in essence two halves of a single whole.