Abstract

Movies appeal as a subject of psychoanalytical art interpretation due to their structural closeness to "scenical understanding" and enrich our Insight into human relationships. The movie Das Pest is worth seeing because of its particular aesthetic form and because of its message about sibling relationships. According to the assessment of film journalists the movie shows the dismantling of middle class society and the reinscenation of destructive violence. In this author's interpretation, however, the movie leads out of passing violence on through the generations and herein differs from numerous current movies about siblings. The movie is about the process of a constructive development in the reciprocal relationships between four siblings and shows this in the formal structure of a film. With countertransference and our "viewing habits" the author discusses why this development could be overlooked. The movie shows neither a sibling fixation nor an idealization of sibling love as a regressive, timeless topos, but rather a horizontal relationship process. This is open towards partners and allows for a conciliatory attitude towards the parents. The movie is able to show this process conclusively under the burden of intergenerational violence and in its creativity enriches our image of sibling relationships.