Two brothers from polar opposite class backgrounds come together to search for their estranged father in Kazakh director Darkhan Tulegenov’s pessimistic and bloody debut feature Brothers, which mines the familiar post-Soviet trope of the absentee dad to suspenseful effect. Its vision of contemporary Kazakhstan is a bleak and brutal one of overcrowded unemployment centres and abusive domestic tyranny at the hands of authoritarian and self-serving patriarchs, where underhand dealings and crime are often the only avenues for making ends meet and escape possible. In its consideration of the transgressive potential of lawlessness as a radical act of desperation in a kill-or-be-killed world of inequality and corruption, and its existential take on the crime thriller, it occupies similar terrain to compatriot Darezhan Omirbayev’s successful arthouse film of a decade ago, Student (2012), albeit in a more straightforward, schematic manner.
Akzhol (Alisher Ismailov), having reached adulthood, must leave the orphanage where he grew up, and has been moved into an apartment in a public housing complex, where he meets a youth similarly rehoused from another orphanage, Dimash (Azat Dzumadil). With the chaotic lines at the unemployment office offering little prospect to help him meet his upcoming rent payments, he quickly falls into co-operating with Dimash to split the proceeds on robberies. But his primary preoccupation is finding a way to get in touch with his father, who abandoned him as a kid after his mother died, and whose worn photograph he carries around. Akzhol discovers through a relative that he has a brother, Dalen (Aibar Saly), born to the same father, who he has never met. Dalen lives with wealthy adoptive parents, who he regularly attends church with (where a sermon from the Gospel of Luke tells of a son who went astray and returned), and who ensure that he nurtures his budding talent as a violinist. But he is miserable. What seems a charmed life on the outside is one of constant fear and tension, as his adoptive father is a controlling narcissist who terrorises the family with physical abuse. When Akzhol appears offering the prospect of a brotherly bond, the lonely Dalen is fascinated and hopeful, yet uneasy around the roughness and danger of his very different lifestyle. His demeanour begins to change, to his family’s alarm, as he secretly joins Akzhol and Dimash as a lookout on robberies, and starts to smoke pot and drink with the pair.
As the risks and stakes involved in the criminal activities of the trio swiftly escalate, and a convenience-store robbery goes terribly wrong, Tulegenov effectively ramps up suspense, creating a pressure-cooker scenario in which loyalties and ethics are put to the test. The brothers decide to try crossing the border illegally with the help of a people smuggler to reach the coast where they have heard their father is working as a fisherman. But again, nothing goes to plan and they are forced to think themselves out of a tight fix — with only drastic measures sufficient to survive in a universe that proves to them time and again that love and altruism are mere spectres, and everyone is out for themselves.
Evocatively and moodily lensed by cinematographer Sherkhan Tansykbayev in shadows and a palate of sombre greens and browns, the contrasting abodes of the brothers, which set their material conditions in relief, make way for stark stretches of coastal sands, as the brothers undertake their journey. Ismailov and Saly both put in strong, emotionally intense turns as the brothers. A subtle shift in power dynamics between the two occurs as the repressed rage and amorality of Dalen, who shaves his head and dispenses with the meek obedience he was indoctrinated with at home, finds outward expression. This leads to a shock finale that suggests blood ties may not be enough to surmount the deep divisions between entitled privilege and impoverished marginalisation in an unjust and hypocritical society, where truth is buried by the powerful and surface veneers count for everything.
Director: Darkhan Tulegenov
Screenplay: Darkhan Tulegenov, Alen Rakhmetaliev
Cast: Aibar Saly, Alisher Ismailov, Azat Zhumandil, Dulyga Akmolda
Producer: Maxim Akbarov
Cinematography: Sherkhan Tansykbayev
Production design: Bagdat Kozhakmetov
Composer: Abai Akbaev
Production company: Golden Man Media (Kazakhstan)
Venue: Oldenburg International Film Festival
In Kazakh
100 minutes