Famil­iar Cir­cles

Is our fate predestined by our own family? Are familial conflicts passed down from one generation to another on as some kind of unwelcome inheritance?And what can be done to interrupt the vicious cycle? After decades of silence, the film-maker travels to Zurich to seek out his grandfather Günther who not only lost the grandmother's fortune, but also misappropriated several millions from others; money he then lost in risky stock market investments. Günther, now 90 years old, critically ill and completely impoverished, is possessed by the idea to amend his “guilt” before he dies. There is one last business deal he still wants to close ... But when Bettina, mother of film-maker Rothlaender and daughter of Günther, also appears in Zurich, in the hopes of reconciling with her father, Günter is incapable of recognizing the situation at hand. Rothlaender sets out on a quest to find the roots of their seemingly incurable falling-out and is forced to deal with the ruthless conflicts within his own family. His journey leads him from the story of his grandparents to that of his mother and finally to his own.