On the screens of domestic cinemas, 'The Brothers', a French drama about brotherly love, childhood trauma, and the price of freedom.

In 1948, two brothers, Michel and Patrice, run away from the orphanage where their willful and selfish mother placed them. The boys cannot return to the institution because they blame themselves for the death of its director (in fact, he was already dead), so they decide to live away from civilization in the forest. Years later, the older brother Patrice (Mathieu Kassovitz) again escapes into the Canadian wilderness, and the younger brother, played by Yvan Attal, sets out to find him.

The film 'The Brothers', as stated in the opening title, is based on real events. The movie can be criticized for the events in the past timeline not seeming plausible enough. But on the other hand, artistic license is at play here, reflecting a childlike, somewhat romanticized view of things that washes away some of the negativity and turns homeless survival into a kind of adventure, the 'best years of life'.

Paradoxically, returning to life in civilization turned out to be even more difficult for the characters than their time away from it. Faced with restrictions on freedom and separation—the very things they feared most—the brothers mentally kept returning to those relatively carefree times when they hunted together and lived in a hut made of leaves and branches.

'The Brothers' is a sensitive and emotional film that, oddly enough, is not so much about the traumatic experience of early maturation in harsh conditions, but about how hiding trauma and turning it into a secret can harm a person. Therefore, the difficult past is shown in bright, nostalgic tones, while the oppressive present is in muted, cold ones. The flashbacks are organically woven into the main storyline and do not feel like dramatic clichés.

The main highlight of the film is, of course, the brothers themselves. The on-screen duo of Attal and Kassovitz is so convincing that there is no doubt about the brotherly love of their characters. They were entrusted to play heroes who, even reaching adulthood and achieving career success, still remain hermits, wild and lonely, with only each other. It is their touching interaction that can evoke strong emotions in the viewer. The main achievement of director Olivier Casas is that he managed to make a lively, sincere film devoid of moralizing and stating the obvious, and even the clichés typical of such stories do not feel fake.

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