Aleksei Balabanov: 'Brother'

Ira Osterberg

Description

KinoSputniks closely analyse some key films from the history of Russian and Soviet cinema. Written by international experts in the field, they are intended for film enthusiasts and students, combining scholarship with an accessible style of writing.

Ira Österberg's KinoSputnik on Aleksei Balabanov's cult film Brother (1997) examines the production history, context and reception of the film, and offers a detailed reading of its key themes.

Balabanov’s Brother made a mark on the new Russia’s film history as its hero Danila Bagrov quickly gained cult status and the nostalgic rock soundtrack hit the nerve of the young post-Soviet generation. This study unravels the film’s effective and ingenious mixture of genre elements, art narration and almost documentary-style realism, which would become trademarks for Balabanov’s oeuvre.

Primary readership will be among film studies students and film enthusiasts, but will also be of interest to anyone researching or studying film soundtracking.

A list of all books in the series is here on the Intellect website on the series page KinoSputnik

List of Illustrations vii

Note on Transliteration ix

Acknowledgements xi

Production Information xiii

Plot Summary xv

Introduction 1

1. Cinematic Context and Production History 7

2. Film Analysis 33

3. Reception 137

Conclusion: Brother over Twenty Years Later 159

Notes 163

References 171

Sujets

• Cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinema
• Russie
• Film
• ART
• Cultural Studies
• Alekseï Balabanov
• History of film
• Russia
• Video
• Cinema of Russia
• Aleksei Balabanov

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789384857
• Langue: English

Extrait

Aleksei Balabanov:
Brother
KinoSputnik 5
KinoSputniks
Series Editor: Birgit Beumers
Editorial Board: Richard Taylor, Julian Graffy and Denise Youngblood
This series aims to provide concise companion guides to some of the key films to emerge from Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet cinema from its inception to the present day. Continuing from KinoFiles (2000-10), the KinoSputniks are aimed at film enthusiasts and students alike, combining scholarship with a style of writing that is accessible to a broad readership. Each KinoSputnik is written by a specialist in the field of Russian and/or film studies, and examines the production, context and reception of the film, whilst defining the film s place in its national context and in the history of world cinema.
Current titles: 1 Aleksandr Askoldov: The Commissar by Marat Grinberg 2 Sergei Paradjanov: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Joshua First 3 Aleksandr Sokurov: Russian Ark by Birgit Beumers 4 Andrei Tarkovsky: Ivan s Childhood by Robert Efird 5 Aleksei Balabanov: Brother by Ira sterberg 6 Fedor Bondarchuk: Stalingrad by Stephen M. Norris
Aleksei Balabanov:
Brother
By Ira sterberg
First published in the UK in 2022 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2022 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2022 Intellect Ltd
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Part of the KinoSputniks series
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Contents
List of Illustrations
Note on Transliteration
Acknowledgements
Production Information
Plot Summary
Introduction

1 Cinematic Context and Production History
2 Film Analysis
3 Reception

Conclusion: Brother over Twenty Years later
Notes
References
Illustrations
Figure 1.1. Still from Aleksandr Gordon and Andrei Tarkovsky's student film There Will Be No Leave Today .
Figure 1.1. CTB Film Company's logo. Still 13from Brother .
Figure 2.1. The stage is set: the fictional film 37crew. Still from Brother .
Figure 2.2. And the hero appears: Danila enters 37the film set. Still from Brother .
Figure 2.3. Danila at the militia station. 46Still from Brother .
Figure 2.4. Even the statue is concerned – 46Danila seen through the militia officer's window. Still from Brother .
Figure 2.5. First image of Vitia: ‘Who has not 53been to Moscow.’ Still from Brother .
Figure 2.6. Different directions – Danila 59and the Bronze Horseman. Still from Brother .
Figure 2.7. First night in St. Petersburg: 65Danila and the darkness. Still from Brother .
Figure 2.8. Focus is on Danila's hands and 69the gun: a moment of fear for Hoffman. Still from Brother .
Figure 2.9. Symbolic execution: Danila arrives 78at Vitia's place. Still from Brother .
Figure 2.10. ‘Well, hello there, brother’: Vitia 78greets Danila. Still from Brother .
Figure 2.11. Dual source for ‘Gentle Vampire’, 87Butusov on the poster and earphone in Danila's ear. Still from Brother .
Figure 2.12. Danila's Sony Discman and the gun. 87Still from Brother .
Figure 2.13. Danila in bed with Sveta: 99‘This here is play, and this is stop.’ Still from Brother .
Figure 2.14. Danila and director Stepa: ‘I like 113their music a lot.’ Still from Brother .
Figure 2.15. Self-discovery: Danila faces the 118mirror. Still from Brother .
Figure 2.16. ‘Do you remember...?’: Danila and 123moral victory. Still from Brother .
Figure 2.17. Sveta is left with the mini-stereo: 128‘I look into the darkness.’ Still from Brother .
Figure 2.18. Danila disappears in the crowd. 128Still from Brother .
Figure 2.19. Re-birth of the hero: Danila in 131the snow. Still from Brother .
Note on Transliteration
The Library of Congress system (ALA-LC) has been used throughout.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Birgit Beumers for trusting me with this project, Tim Mitchell at Intellect for helping me go through with it, and the Aleksanteri Institute, the Finnish Centre for Russian and Eastern European Studies at the University of Helsinki, for facilitating and supporting me and my work.
Production Information
Production credits
Russian title: Brat
Producer: Sergei Sel ianov
Production company: CTB Film Company
Release date: 17 May 1997
Director: Aleksei Balabanov
Screenplay: Aleksei Balabanov
Cinematography: Sergei Astakhov
Production designer: Vladimir Kartashov
Editor: Marina Lipartiia
Costume designer: Nadezhda Vasil eva
Make-up: Tamara Frid
Sound: Maksim Belovolov
Running time: 96 minutes
Cast
Danila Bagrov: Sergei Bodrov Jr.
Danila s brother (Vitia): Viktor Sukhorukov
Sveta: Svetlana Pis michenko
Ket: Mariia Zhukova
Hoffman ( The German ): Iurii Kuznetsov
Butusov: Viacheslav Butusov
Zin ka: Irina Rakshina
Kruglyi: Sergei Murzin
Nervous bandit: Anatolii Zhuravlev
Militia officer: Igor' Shibanov
Stepa: Andrei Fedortsov
Screenings at film festivals (and awards)
1997 Cannes International Film Festival, Programme Un Certain Regard
1997 Chicago International Film Festival (Best actor)
1997 Cottbus International Film Festival (Jury Special Prize, FIPRESCI prize)
1997 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (in competition)
1997 Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr at Sochi (Grand Prix, Best actor)
1997 Macedonia International Film Festival (Best cinematography)
1997 Manaki Brothers Film Festival, Macedonia (Golden Camera 300 cinematography award)
1997 Minsk International Film Festival Listapad (Grand Prix)
1997 Russian Film Awards Zolotoi oven (Best actor)
1997 Russian Film Festival Sozvezdie (Best supporting actors)
1997 Torino International Film Festival (Jury Special Prize, FIPRESCI prize)
1997 Trieste International Film Festival (Grand Prix)
Plot Summary
A young man living in a Russian provincial town, Danila Bagrov, has recently been demobilised from the army. He accidentally interrupts the filming of a music video for the song Wings by the Russian rock group Nautilus Pompilius, which results in a fight with the security guards. Danila is detained and briefly interrogated at the police station. In order to avoid any further problems, his mother urges him to move to St. Petersburg, where his older brother Vitia has established himself as an important man. The mother is unaware that Vitia is in fact a hitman for the Russian mafia.
Danila travels to St. Petersburg. Unable to contact his brother, he spends the night on the street and encounters poor city folk: a young drug addict called Ket and a homeless man called Hoffman, whom Danila nicknames The German ( Nemets ). Danila expresses interest in Nautilus s music by visiting record shops and asking for their CDs. He also demonstrates coarse nationalistic thinking in pulling a gun on two Caucasian men in a tram. When Danila finally does meet up with Vitia, the older brother swiftly recruits young Danila to take care of some of his dirty business for him.
Danila takes on the task set by his brother: he prepares an explosive and a gun with a silencer to assassinate a Chechen criminal boss in a marketplace. While escaping from the crime scene, he is injured. He hides in an empty tram driven by a woman called Sveta. Danila and Sveta end up having a romance, which mainly involves the two listening to Nautilus Pompilius: they attend a concert and Danila buys Sveta a CD player. Their budding romance is interrupted by the appearance of Sveta s violent husband, which leads Danila to have an affair with Ket.
After a night partying with Ket, Vitia calls upon Danila to go on a mission for him once again. This time, Danila and two other gangsters invade a private apartment and take the homeowner hostage. While they wait for their target s arrival, two unlikely visitors appear at the door: a director called Stepa and the lead singer of Nautilus Pompilius, Viacheslav Butusov. In this uncanny turn of events, Danila follows Butusov upstairs to a musicians party. When he returns to the crime scene, he sees that things have gone awry and the gangsters have killed two men, while director Stepa is hiding behind the door. Danila kills the gangsters and saves Stepa.
Thereafter, things escalate rapidly: an attempt is made to assassinate Danila, but the bullet hits and destroys his portable CD player instead. Gangster boss Kruglyi and his minions invade Sveta s apartment and rape her as punishment for helping Danila. The gangsters then kidnap Vitia and make him lure Danila to his apartment. Realising what is going on, Danila again demonstrates his craftmanship in preparing yet another weapon. He then enters Vitia s apartment, successfully killing off all the gangsters. Vitia begs for forgiveness, revealing that he has betrayed him. Danila says that he bears no grudge as Vitia is his brother after all, and he orders Vitia to go back home to their mother and start a career in the militia.
After beating the gangsters, collecting their money, and getting things sorted out with his brother, Danila asks Sveta to run away with him, but she refuses. Danila then turns to Hoffman to say goodbye, but he refuses to take any of his dirty money. Danila then seeks out Ket, gives her the money, and leaves. The final sc