Brother
Short description
Danila Bagrov returns from army service to his small hometown, where he finds little to keep him there. He travels to Saint Petersburg to look up his older brother Viktor, who is said to have done well for himself in the city. What Danila does not know is that Viktor works as a contract killer and is lying low after demanding too much money for a job targeting a Chechen crime boss. To keep himself out of sight, Viktor persuades his younger brother to carry out the killing in his place.
Aleksey Balabanov directed and wrote the film, with Sergei Selyanov producing. It was Balabanov's first feature and the beginning of a series that continued with Brother 2 in 2000 and Dead Man's Bluff in 2005. Sergei Bodrov Jr. plays Danila, with Viktor Sukhorukov as Viktor, and Yuriy Kuznetsov, Svetlana Pismichenko, Mariya Zhukova and Sergey Murzin among the twenty-nine credited cast members. The film runs 96 minutes.
Released in December 1997, Brother drew a worldwide box office of about 1 million dollars, a modest figure for a film shot on a small scale. Reception has held up over time: on IMDb it holds 7.8/10 from around 28,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.5/10 from roughly 495 votes. A critics' rating of 7.6/10 from five reviews sits close to the audience scores, indicating broad agreement rather than a sharp divide.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was shot in 31 days.
- Due to a lack of funds, filming took place in locations that were not properly arranged.
- Most of the film was shot on Vasilyevsky Island.
- The first meeting of the brothers (Bodrov and Sukhorukov) takes place in the famous Adamin House.
- The chunky knit sweater worn by Danila Bagrov was bought by artist Nadezhda Vasilyeva at a thrift store for 35 rubles.
- Cinematographer Sergei Astakhov played a truck driver in the final scene because it turned out that none of the actors had a driver's license to operate a truck.
- Due to a lack of funds, filming took place without permits in some locations.
- The brothers' first meeting takes place in the famous Adamini House.
- At the 14th minute, while Danila is riding the tram, Caucasian men sitting at the end of the car harass a girl who has just boarded. The girl stands by the window, but she is no longer visible in subsequent shots.
- At the police station, Danila gives his address as: "Vokzalnaya, 22." That address corresponds to the railway station in Yekaterinburg, Alexei Balabanov’s hometown.
- Hoffman, in the cemetery scene after Danila’s second acquittal, says: "God is your judge." The Greek name Daniel means "God is my judge."
- Svetlana Pismichenko specifically learned how to drive a tram for the role of Sveta.
- During the filming of the scene where Pavel Yegrafovich is wounded, actor Vladimir Ermilov actually sustained a leg injury due to a pyrotechnics error.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
