“Anyone who listens to this tape will think that I lost my mind, that I went crazy, because I’m talking to a dead man. But for me, you will never be a dead man, I will always be able to smell your scent.” (Tape 479).
More than 16 years have passed since furrier Stefan Braun passed away, but for Eliezer Rath, his lover and life-partner for 39 years, Stefan’s heart is still beating. Day in and day out he sits in Stefan’s room which hasn’t been touched since Stefan’s passed a way, recording himself talking to him. Eliezer has recorded hundreds of tapes in which he tells Stefan about the events of the day, sings to him, and includes him in his thoughts and longings.
However, for Stefan’s family, the relationship between the two is not an amazing and harmonious love story.
They describe Eliezer as someone who rapidly transformed from lover to servant, ready to endure humiliation and betrayal just so he could be near his lover, while Stefan became the master totally dependent on his servant’s close service.
After Stefan’s death, Eliezer Rath was forced to prove his love for his life-partner. He is confronted by Stefan’s cohesive family who raise doubts and suspicions about Stefan’s last days in light of the will he left behind.
Conversations held between Eliezer and Stefan’s family, rare recordings, personal diaries, hundreds of stills and old 8mm films tell the fascinating and complex love story of furrier Stefan Braun and tailor Eliezer Rath.