No Emotion

Brother is an odd, unsettling movie with a fascinating central character. If, like me, you are deeply conditioned by Hollywood to expect certain cliches from Action/Adventures you'll find this very refreshing. Danila is a former Russian soldier who claims to have spent his time in service at HQ, pushing pencils. His jarring talent for violence betrays a very different story. But that's not the story presented here. Instead we see Danila traveling to Petersburg to find his brother, where an odd tale of inept mobsters and rubbish folk rock bands unfolds. The morality of the film, and the anti-hero that Damila represents is so different from the usual Die Hard/Rambo type, that you can't help but marvel at the humanity of the story, the bleakness of modern Russia, and the weird bonds that constitute family.

The characters are human, flawed and well drawn, the plot is a bit confusing at times, the photography is vivid and cold, and the violence is sparse, realistic, unglamorous and totally key to the story. No sweaty righteous hero crashlanding a blazing aircraft on Sunset Strip amidst a ballet of machine guns here.

Don't miss - in the extra features - one of the most dreadful music video ever committed to tape.