Intermezzo

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses alcohol addiction, domestic abuse, and suicidal ideation.

At the funeral of their father, Peter Koubek sees his younger brother, Ivan, wearing an ill-fitting suit. Several days later, Peter visits his girlfriend, Naomi, a college student, in the abandoned apartment building she informally occupies. When Naomi asks him how Ivan is doing in the wake of the loss, Peter explains that the brothers’ contrasting personalities have led to estrangement. Ivan is a chess prodigy. Peter is a lawyer.

Naomi recently sold explicit pictures of herself to buy books for school. Peter regrets that she couldn’t reach out to him while he was busy with the funeral. When Naomi learns that several of Peter’s other friends, including his ex-girlfriend, Sylvia, were at the funeral, she insinuates that Peter is embarrassed of her. Peter defends that he wouldn’t have known how to explain their relationship. He withholds telling her that he asked Sylvia to keep him company after the funeral to avoid interacting with Ivan.

Peter meets Sylvia for dinner, nostalgic about their college days. Years earlier, a car accident caused Sylvia to have long-term chronic pain.