Brother (1997 film)

Brother Брат
Russian poster
Directed by	Aleksei Balabanov
Produced by	Sergei Selyanov
Written by	Aleksei Balabanov
Starring	Sergei Bodrov, Jr. Viktor Sukhorukov Yury Kuznetsov Vyacheslav Butusov
Music by	Vyacheslav Butusov
Production company	STW Film Co.
Distributed by	Kino International Corp.
Release date	May 17, 1997 (Cannes)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	Russia
Language	Russian
Budget	$10,000

Brother (Russian: Брат, translit. Brat) is a 1997 Russian crime film directed by Aleksei Balabanov and starring Sergei Bodrov Jr. It is the first film to feature Danila Bagrov, the iconic protagonist of the film and its sequel, Brother 2, released in 2000. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. After its release on VHS in June 1997, Brother quickly became one of the few commercially successful Russian films released in the 1990s.

The film begins in the autumn of 1996, after the protagonist, Danila Bagrov (Sergei Bodrov Jr.) returns to his small hometown following his demobilisation from the Russian Army after the First Chechen War. Before he reaches home, he ends up in a fight with security guards, after he accidentally walks onto the set of a music video for the band Nautilus Pompilius. The local police release him, on the condition that he will find work within the week. His mother insists that he travels to St. Petersburg to seek out his successful older brother Viktor, whom his mother is confident will help him make a living.

Danila travels to the city, but his first attempts to make contact with Viktor are unsuccessful. Instead, he travels around the city and befriends several people from a very wide urban spectrum: Kat (Mariya Zhukova), an energetic drug addict and party-girl, and "German" Hoffman (Yury Kuznetsov), a kind, homeless man whom Danila rescues from a thug.