This movie is much inferior to its sequel Brother 2, and some other masterpieces of Balabanov, like the bleakly realistic Cargo 200 . That it is a no budget film is not a problem, many Eastern European movies are and are far superior. This is a commercial hit, and it is a Russian version of a Hollywood movie. Decent acting, but ultimately boring and lacking on artistic front, it is nevertheless improvement compared to the similar Russian cinema of the day, worth mostly for its realistic portrayal of the Russian decadence in the 90s and beyond. The movie is tailored as populist take pandering to its Russian public. Brother 2 is more nationalistic but also much more artistically accomplished. This move was meant to earn money and it did, so Balabanov used it to make his arthouse masterpiece "Of freaks and men" that has much more to say about a state of illness of "Russian soul" than this one. Jews and Polish people, as all foreigners, are portrayed in full of hate colors. The murderous cute boy Danila (actor died in an avalanche, fittingly, a few years later, ushering him into legend in the eyes of not so sophisticated Russian public) goes on to search for his identity by dating corrupt married women and druggies, an accurate portrayal of womanhood in Russia to this day. The mobsters are all realistic, common Russian folk, who practice forced love making also known by a censored word starting with r and ending with e (that they became famous for during WWII, so much so that Yugoslav leader Djilas had to scorn Stalin for that, while Stalin defended the "poor soldiers" and approved the forced making of moskal babies as normal, thinking nothing about the innocent victims, he tried and often managed to enslave. Fittingly, being kicked out of proud Yugoslavia and when trying to off leader Tito, getting an apt and bad ass message from fellow autocrat, much more sophisticated than the Georgian son - "We caught 7 people trying to kill me. If you don't stop sending them, I will have to send one myself. There will be no need to send another." ). Movie deals ample doses of adult ery, murder, thu g gery, and Russian version of western arrogg gance and hypocrisy, that is here documented at its most wounded, washed in copious amounts of vodka.Having been to Russia at its deepest point of ruin, at the time this movie was made, I can attest to its realism. The dirty fly markets at every metro station, immorality, adoration for worst of western so called pop culture or dismissing it with unearned arrog ggance, all ring very real. President Putin got Russia out of this mud, and it is no surprise that he is ever so popular. Despite it being essentially a populist commercial Russian tree sh pandering and complimenting the worst instincts of this sometimes great, but often self absorbed nation, it is worth a watch if only to understand how decline and decadence look like up close. Russians might tap themselves over their thick shoulders telling that it is movie speaking only to themselves, but this movie is in fact very successful not only in over the top pandering managing to earn director enough money to move to more serious projects (luckily for everyone), but also for revealing, beneath the nationalistic facade, the true face of well deserved decline after decades of russian imperialism in the cloak of being the main bearer of socialist idea that they almost ruined - a fate that awaits the amuricans too, as the soviets were as arrog glant as they are before hitting the rock bottom during the well deserved but awakening Yeltsin years.

My Russian friends told me to avoid this film, that it wasn't good. But I tend to trust IMDb ratings over word of mouth or what friends think. I should have listened. I've only seen a few Russian movies, but this one is by far the only one that has been terrible thus far. There are too many technical flaws to over look. The editing is bad and the characters don't react in a way they should. It seems their actions and dialogue are the product of simply serving the main character's message and reputation. Ironically, many of the Russian films I have seen from the 80's and 70's are way ahead of their time. Good acting, good writing, good story telling. Fast forward 20 years and watch брат and you wonder if film making in Russia regressed 35 years over night. It simply does not hold up. The film is less than 2 hours, but it felt like 2 days. Do yourself a favor and pass. There are much much better Russian films out there.

At first glance Brat, (Brother), comes across as a grim and humorless portrayal of post-Cold War Russia, but beneath the surface it is a strong critique of the dangerous wounded animal that the country has become: mass poverty, crime, alienation of the youth and failing family structure all act as dramatic catalysts in the system, adding to the problems and attitudes of 1990s Russia. Our vantage point revolves around the young Danila and follows through with his reintroduction to life outside the military, into the city. Although Danila is surrounded by the gloom and doom of the Communist aftermath where social structures are collapsing into near anarchy, he remains an allegorical symbol of the state of Russia's acute sense of right and wrong and offers hope for a brighter future and some semblance of a moral code.In St. Petersburg Viktor is successful, but we find that it is at being a hit-man for the Russian mafia, which is also making him paranoid. After tying up Dani in a scheme to take out a competitive Chechen mob boss in his stead while simultaneously usurping the Russians, Dani is now in over his head with the mob, and becomes a killer. Meanwhile each character Danila meets represents a different aspect of Russian culture and institutional disillusionment. He begins with Kat, a disaffected youth who only cares for him only for the money he has to buy acid and go raving. Later in the film, Dani goes out with Kat to do just that, and finds himself at a house party telling fellow inebriated foreigners, "Soon all of your America will kick the bucket!" When Kat tells him to stop badgering them because they're French, he replies with "It's all the same." Clearly, there is no thawing of Western resentment, even in the youth, daily indoctrinated by their seniors. It is only when Russians seek to find their own identity, not to emulate the capitalist West as Yeltsin's failed attempt of economic shock therapy sought to do, that there is a renewed sense of nationalistic pride. We see this again when two American tourists ask Danila for directions to a nearby club and he is disapprovingly silent. Danila's moral compass takes on some unorthodox manifestations as is not unlike the general occurrences of the city. On a public bus, a ticket-taker asks two men to either supply a ticket or provide the fee. As they disrespectfully hassle the official to leave them alone, Dani makes them pay at gunpoint. Here the impoverished Dani has the chance to take all of the contents of the man's wallet, which contains much more than the $7 fee, but he takes only the fee amount and tells them to beat it. Shortly after, a thug is hassling a street trinket-seller for "taxes" and threatens to take his goods. Danila swiftly knocks the thug out and makes friends with the man named Nemets, a homeless German. When his nationality comes up later, Danila says he has no problems with Germans, only Americans and Jews (Westerners). Nemets remains Danila's kindest friend throughout, and moral anchor, constantly supplying the wisdom of the film. Ironically, the most foolish character is the Russian Mob boss, who speaks in rhyming proverbs, but is driven by greed and power. Another disillusionment comes in the form of a brief love interest named Sveta, whose husband is an abusive drunk. This failing family mirrors the situation all over the city, as Nemets so sagely says, "The city is an evil force. The strong come and become feeble. The city takes the strength away. And now you've fallen." Even Dani's bitter old landlord speaks to everyone threateningly as though it is still WWII unless he is intoxicated. Nemets' words weigh heavily on Danila. In the climax moment when his brother (unbeknownst to Dani) has him cover his position in a heist suspected to be a trap, some innocent people get mixed up in the hit, one of them being the frontman of his favorite band. Danila makes a promise to save an innocent and turns on the two mob thugs when they finish their hit and start killing the witnesses.Danila has come to a realisation that his life is becoming the very substance he is fighting against, but that is not the end of his criminal lifestyle. The mob learns of this and take his brother in for beating and questioning. Then they discover Danila's address and rape and beat Sveta while he is away. Dani gets prepared to liberate the community of the mob and rescue his brother simultaneously. As he is made known to the front guard, in an act of mercy he gives him his word to spare his life if he remains quiet, which he follows up with after killing the rest of the gangsters. As Danila makes amends with the ultimate betrayal (his brother's) he takes the mob money and seeks to say goodbye to each of his acquaintances, to which he offers the only reparation he knows--money. Sveta has lost interest and seeks to reunite with her estranged husband, Kat passively accepts Dani's farewell and cash and Nemet follows up with his words of wisdom once more, "what's good for the Russian is death for the German," a message contrary to his earlier mantra.Brother was Russia's big contemporary crime thriller. But besides being a low-budget blockbuster, it carries an important story of the resurfacing of morals in a fallen world, serving as a message for its Russian audience. The film ends with Danila hitching a ride to Moscow in a red (Russian) truck amidst the white backdrop of a road and forest blanketed with snow, symbolising the new beginning for Russia.

"Brother" managed to do many things to me through my first viewing. It confused me thoroughly, but through a little studying, and also through some reviews here on this site and others, it all became rather clear.This film comments on much of Russian culture, and being American, it can be hard to swallow without a background. The recent conflicts that so many Russian conscripts had joined, and had come back from, the state of the city Danila visits, the crime, the broken families, the Russian youth he meets that symbolize a sort of separated youth, and even his general attitude throughout the film. He acts nothing like any lead I've seen, often seeming aloof or distracted, and then seems to fall back on his military ways. The running joke of the film, from the very beginning, is that he is "just a clerk". It is very obvious that he is NOT.The film says much about Russian culture, and I won't bore anyone with technical details about direction or editing, as I know nothing about it, but as a film, as a dynamic, it works incredibly well.