Brother

            Brother is a film directed by Aleksei Balabanov that was made in 1997. The film concerns a man named Danila Bagrov, played by Sergei Bodrov Jr. In the film Danila goes to St. Petersburg, where his brother Viktor lives. While in St. Petersburg, Danila participates in murdering and hit killings as his brother has become a gangster. Danila seems to be a character that is quick to use violence. In the beginning of the film, he accidentally walks through a movie that is being shot and is getting chased by guards. Danila fights the guards and beats them, but gets into trouble. This is one of the reasons he goes to St. Petersburg. As the film progresses, Danila uses violence to help others. He helps Nemets by stopping a man trying to rob him, and later he forces two people off a bus with a gun because they refused to pay for tickets. I think Danila is motivated to fight people for good reasons, and he feels that violence is the solution to many of the problems he deals with in the film.

            Danila comes from a military background. He claims in the film that he was only a clerk in the military, but I question this after seeing his skills with guns and violence. The background in the military helps him with his mob assignments and the fights he is involved in, as he knows how to handle weapons and enemies. In the shootout he is involved in while trying to save his brother; he uses a shotgun that he himself modified. He saws off the barrel and the stock of the gun and he makes ammunition. This helps him in the fight, demonstrating to the viewer how his military knowledge is helpful in his mobster life. Though Danila is a mobster, he is easier to sympathize with than the other mobsters in the films. I think this is because he tries to help people throughout the film, and he is also a man of his word. There are two moments in the film in which Danila spares the life of a man because he promises that no one will hurt them. Danila even kills two other mobsters so that one of the men can live. This demonstrates to the viewer that Danila is not interested in killing innocent people.

            One aspect of the film I found interesting was Danila’s love of music. I found this interesting because I myself am attached to music. I think that Danila is fond of music because it is calming to him and helps distract him from the violence that he is involved in often throughout the film. There are two other things that I found interesting about Brother. One is when Zinka sees Danila’s gunshot wound for the first time. The viewer is not aware about whether or not Zinka knows about the wound, but when she sees it, it does not affect her in any way. This demonstrates to the viewer how violent life could be in St. Petersburg. Often times in the film, when people would answer their doors they would be armed. This could be due to the line of work that Danila is in, but even the man that sells him the rifle owns a rifle. He is not involved in the mobs in St. Petersburg. I noticed in Brother that when the mobsters are luring Danila to Viktor’s apartment, a man who is off camera seems to be playing Russian roulette with Viktor. This did not make sense to me because they are trying to use Viktor to lure Danila to his apartment; killing Viktor would not help them with their goal.