This article discusses the ending of Netflix film My Brother, My Sister, so it will contain spoilers.
My Brother, My Sister is an Italian family-drama movie with a serious narrative, a sentimental yet psychological movie that conveys a meaningful message, including the ending. It’s a journey towards acceptance and mending the broken family. It starts with two siblings — Nik and Tesla — having a real beef towards each other after his father’s last will is for them to live under the same roof together to seek the meaning of love within the family.
To put it up simply, things don’t go well between them, from their way of living to how they communicate. But not until our MVP, the pizza that Nik ordered, comes to the spotlight. The almighty pizza brings everyone together. Including Sebastiano. Ever since then, a ray of sunshines starts to unfold within Nik and Tesla’s house. But the real deal happens after Nik and Tesla overcome their barrier by confronting their past.
Tesla asks why Nik left the house 20 years ago. The two dwell into an arousing argument where he finally opens up about his reason: He sees Giada — his future fiancee — is on the bed with another man. Tesla does not believe everything since Giada is one of her friends. Nik breaks down and starts to tear down all the sticky notes that Tesla put up and that’s how we know that Tesla is also suffering from an issue: OCD.
It’s not just about the pizza, and arousing confrontation. Music plays a big part in it, too. After a long time, Nik finally overcame his fear of playing piano — which strongly associates with his inner wounds regarding his father. He plays Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata where Sebastiano surprisingly joins him as a cellist. Emma or anyone has never been able to makes him move a finger to play his cello, yet… he did it with Nik. Perhaps, what’s missing and makes Sebastiano hides himself is the absence of a fatherly figure that he gradually finds in Nik. Also, the void of engaging with the people is slowly recovering since Nik is the only person that treats him like a human rather than an illness.
That’s when Tesla begins to gives Nik another chance by letting him bring Sebastiano to the beach despite his fear of water and unfamiliar surrounding. The same thing goes with Tesla and Carolina. They spend a date together, where Carolina ends up setting her mother up for a date and spilling all the truth of the lies she’s been making about her relationship with his father and how she is ashamed of Sebastiano. It’s also the first time she ever calls her “mother”. So, all it takes is to listen.
But things begin to fall apart when Nik begins to neglect Sebastiano’s request of going home. Things get ugly after Sebastiano finds out that Nik is flirting with Emma, as the two display a form of affection. Sebastiano is also in love with her. His outrage gets out of hand which later shatters the reconciliation between the family. Nik goes to Giada’s house and the two have sex where she tries to convince him to run away—thankfully he didn’t. This is also the time where Carolina reads the letter that her grandfather writes for her which leaves a shocking revelation.
Despite what happens, Sebastiano still decides to do the concert with Emma but later got anxious due to the crowd resulting in him clashing into a fatal car accident. His accident later brings all the people together. Due to the accident, Sebastiano is in a coma. But later, his subconscious wakes up and begins to express all the things that he is unable to convey. It’s also representing the distortion that Schizophrenia survivors are facing. He reconciles everything with Carolina and asks her to do whatever she wants without thinking of him as a burden because they’re siblings and there’s more depth to their relationship. He also confesses his adoration towards Emma and endless admiration for pulling him out of the dark to Nik. Last but not least, he asks Tesla to start living a happy life and do whatever she wants to.
Netflix film My Brother, My Sister ending explained
So what is the real reason of Nik leaving the house? On the day of Sebastian’s concert, he ran away from the building after having a sudden panic attack and extreme anxiety due to a part of his Schizophrenia symptoms. After his fatal accident, the family finally come together. To mend his absence towards his family, Nik arriving on time where the disastrous event happens. At least this time, he is there with them. Tesla can’t stop blaming herself over what’s happening. Nik reassures her. Later, she confronts him with a shocking truth: Guilino is the man that Nik sees sleeping with Giada. Yup, he was betrayed by his own father. That’s the answer to his absence and why he stopped playing piano.
Guilino’s will is a form of apology to mend the broken family. Well he lost his wife, too, a long time ago. It’s the beginning of the cracks within their family. But sadly when he begins to realize the yearning and love within the family, he is running out of time. So, as a way to put an end to the angst, he let the living soul do their job. Because in the end, love conquers all.
But the real question is… does Sebastiano survive the accident? It can be seen in two ways. The first one is… Yes, he did. The ashes that everyone spreads at the end are Guillino’s. It’s symbolic of acceptance and forgiveness. Throughout the movie, we’ve seen that Sebastiano often communicates with Kelvin, his imaginary friend. He once mentions that he is afraid of water, but at the end, he goes into the water, spreads his grandfather’s ashes, and pours himself into the sea with a bright smile. It can be seen as a metaphor for hope. Sebastiano finally overcome his fear of water, maybe in the future, he’ll overcome his mental illness too! The movie ends with all the family diving into the sea, hugging him, and playfully splashing water to each other as a celebration of healing and a rebirth of a new journey of life.
The second interpretation could be that he did not survive. But the last scene is the distortion of the reality: we’re inside his reality where he finally finds the freedom and the ideal he has yearned for—or everyone yearns for. But nevertheless, both of them are a happy ending for the whole family after what they’ve gone through.
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