Brødre (2004)

Director:

Susanne Bier

Writers:

Susanne Bier (story)
Anders Thomas Jensen (story)

Release Date:

27 August 2004 (Denmark)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

Two brothers must negotiate changing roles and shifting family dynamics when one is sent to war in Afghanistan.

Plot Keywords:

Afghanistan | Prisoner | Criminal | Brother Brother Relationship | Beautiful Woman

Awards:

13 wins & 20 nominations

Cast

Connie Nielsen	...	Sarah
Ulrich Thomsen	...	Michael
Nikolaj Lie Kaas	...	Jannik
Sarah Juel Werner	...	Natalia
Rebecca Løgstrup	...	Camilla (as Rebecca Løgstrup Soltau)
Bent Mejding	...	Henning
Solbjørg Højfeldt	...	Else
Niels Olsen	...	Allentoft
Paw Henriksen	...	Niels Peter
Lars Hjortshøj	...	Preben 2
Lars Ranthe	...	Preben 1
André Babikian	...	Nadeem
Lene Maria Christensen	...	J. Solvej
Laura Bro	...	Ditte
Henrik Koefoed	...	Bartender

Also Known As:

Bröder (Sweden)
Brothers (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, language and brief nudity.

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

Denmark | UK | Sweden | Norway

Language:

Danish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Belgium:KT | Australia:MA | Brazil:16 | France:U | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Argentina:16 | South Korea:15 | New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:13 | Netherlands:12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Almería, Andalucía, Spain

Company:

Two Brothers Ltd.

Trivia:

Director Susanne Bier thought 'Connie Nielsen''s accent was more Swedish than Danish and made her take Danish lesson. Nielsen has been living in the USA for many years, and didn't speak Danish in her everyday life, but the result of the lessons turned out to be pretty good (though, still with a little accent).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Michael is saying goodbye to the girls, the time on the clock jumps backwards between shots.

Quotes:

Michael: I will always love you. That is the only truth that remains. Life is neither right nor wrong, good or bad. But I love you. That's all I know.

Movie Connections:

References Beauty and the Beast (1991)

A Danish Take on the Usual Post- War PTS Syndrome, Updated

"Brothers (Brødre)" is a Danish "Coming Home" crossed with "Deer Hunter" and the novels of Tim O'Brien with the added frisson of Cain vs. Abel, as updated to the war on terrorism in Afghanistan.

While I can understand how this is a new experience for Danes, it could have more impact for someone who has never seen a post-Viet Nam War movie. Otherwise it's like a fairly predictable cable TV movie about post traumatic stress syndrome on a channel that allows four letter words, including as has been done in British television films about returning peacekeepers from the Balkans.

The excellent acting rose above the stereotypes to make it very moving anyway, including very natural child actors who were very un-Dakota Fanning-like.

Nikolaj Lie Kaas is particularly charismatic on screen, even more than he was in "Reconstruction," and should now be in the international pantheon of rugged male stars who play "bad boys" really well, emphasized by portraying brunettes in the land of the blonds. So I give director/co-writer Susanne Bier extra credit for not fulfilling the most obvious direction of the plot, but instead letting tension hang in the air, which is more powerful.

Connie Nielsen, using her native language, has warm and charged chemistry with both her co-stars, but is pretty much just the beautiful wife/mother.

Unfortunately, the distributors didn't spring for American English subtitles so you have to interpret Brit slang as if you're watching BBC America. (I did learn in one instance that the F word sounds pretty much the same in Danish as in English but the subtitles didn't match that sound again so I was wondering what other curse words were being replaced with the fundamental English one.) Some times the translation is just plain confusing; for example, the word "assaulted" seems to have a different connotation than something in the Danish dialog, as a plot point gets confused for a subtitle reader. The translation is particularly a problem during a critical scene where the older girl has an outburst, as it's quizzical how scatological her terms were in Danish as opposed to the English choices to understand how incendiary the scene really is.

The Afghans are uniformly shown with the same level of subtlety as North Vietnamese, let alone Nazis, in prisoner-of-war movies. It is ironically interesting that English is now the lingua franca between freedom fighters everywhere.

The cinematography is beautifully color saturated, but is grainy; perhaps it's blown up from video.