“Brother” directed by Aleksei Balabanov – 1997

“Brother” directed by Aleksei Balabanov – 1997

Aleksei’s film project titled, “Brother” led us through some interesting individuals through its mobster style story. I can imagine that the young man we call Danila was right for the part he played because he had shown his reluctance toward authority of all kinds. He’s avoided listening in the Military, home and pretty much anywhere he went. The streets is where is seemed Danila became stronger, although he had been shot a couple of times, he certainly built his image through the experiences, as we see in this film.

Viktor and some of the other characters did a great job, such as Kat and her need to focus on the drugs at hand and nothing else, German and his cemetery home and gathering of friends, Sveta and her love triangles, all had portrayed the way and life of the 90’s for Russia. To me, it seems as if the 90’s are portrayed as being worse than the 80’s in Russia.

St. Petersburg was a fight or flight kind of town during this time frame in Russia. It’s you or someone else and in the streets, it appears Danila prevails, but not as one would of thought, as a hardnosed thug or anything. Meaning, he seems to have a side of him in which he upholds his word during this film. For example, He promised a director that he can go and even though he hated directors, he still came to fulfill what he promised. Of course, that was after the chaos and body shifting around and a shot, but the fact he made good on his word says a lot of his integrity. This kind act doesn’t make him look so bad in the bigger picture, but then again, if you were on the end of his barrel, would you upset him in any way?