The film is based on a screenplay by the late Steven C. Stewart, who is also the star of the film. Mr. Stewart, who appears in WHAT IS IT? as well, had severe cerebral palsy and communicated the script to Brothers years before it finally went into production. He passed away shortly after the film finished shooting. The film is his psychosexual fantasy, a noirish, surreal story of a wheelchair-bound Lothario who has women, literally, dropping at his feet. The film co-stars German actress Margit Carstensen, who appeared in several of Fassbinder's films, and Lauren German, who plays a young woman confined to a wheelchair who dreams of dating a non-handicapped suitor.