If you ever meet someone from Russia who was born after 1975, and you mention you've seen this movie, you will immediately be their friend. The film seems to be in the style of a sketch film, though the style doesn't so much capture "moments in time," as sketch films usually do, but instead is used to accentuates the haphazardness of the main characters actions, and his never ending resourcefulness.

The essential plot is that a young man, after finishing his time in the military, goes to Moscow to find his brother, who is involved in local organized crime. The brother wants to get rid of one of his competitors without looking like he is responsible, so he gets his brother to do it, and then tries to sell him out to the rival gang. The brother though, despite being in his early twenties, and more concerned with girls and music then with money and crime, is unusually good with guns, a fast thinker, and can always get the better of the people who are after him.

Though I'm not Russian, I've always had the impression that Russians like to look at themselves like the main character of this movie. They like simple things, are nice to people, just wander around from day to day, but for some reason everyone is always after them, and they have to be resourceful to survive. The main character in this film seems to just be wandering from place to place trying to make his way in Moscow, making friends with people on the street, and he just occasionally has to shoot up a member of the mafia that's after him.

Its a charming film, see it if you have the chance.

Buy Brother here

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