Brother
(1997)
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Brother
(1997)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Sergey Bodrov Jr. | ... |
Danila Bagrov
(as Sergey Bodrov)
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Viktor Sukhorukov | ... |
Danila's Brother
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Svetlana Pismichenko | ... |
Sveta
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Mariya Zhukova | ... |
Kat
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Yuriy Kuznetsov | ... |
German
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Vyacheslav Butusov | ... |
Butusov
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Irina Rakshina | ... |
Zinka
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Sergei Murzin | ... |
Krugly
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Anatoliy Zhuravlyov | ... |
Nervous Bandit
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Igor Shibanov | ... |
Militiaman
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Andrey Fedortsov | ... |
Styopa
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Sergei Debizhev | ... |
Himself
(as Sergey Debezhev)
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Aleksei Sevostyanov |
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Rinat Ibragimov | ... |
(as Renat Ibragimov)
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Vladimir Ermilov |
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Danila goes to his older brother to start a new life in Petersburg. His brother is a gangster and a killer, and he puts Danila into this criminal world asking him to kill someone. There his new life starts, he meets new people, a girl, becomes a big fan of the rock band "Nautilus Pompillius". Now he is a killer, and killing is easier than living for him. Realizing this makes him understand he is going the wrong way. Written by Max Volovik <dimaa@worldnet.att.net>
This film was a blockbuster hit in Russia, for many reasons that international viewers might not understand. "Brother" is a film that speaks directly to Russians (especially the urban population) about the time period directly following the fall of the Soviet Union. This was a lawless time, full of uncertainty about everything including whether your life would be ended by a random criminal on the street. It also suggests the Russian disillusionment with the Chechen War (well, the first one of the 1990s).
Balabanov has created an intense crime drama that attempts to answer Dostoyevsky's "eternal question": what does one do in a lawless society? Danila, the hero, has lost his innocence during the war in Chechnya. In this way he really represents all of Russia in that he has lost his heritage and his identity, and now must make his way in the new Russia. Like many others at the time, Danila turns to crime in order to survive.
The most heart-wrenching thing about "Brother" is that it has an incredible likeness to the reality of life in St. Petersburg in the early 1990s. Though on the surface it seems to be full of senseless violence, Danila's search for identity (that mirrors Russia's) calls for an honest picture of the hard life of the period.