''Brothers'' ( da, Brødre, link=no) is a 2004 Danish

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting. In terms of context and c ...

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by

Susanne Bier Susanne Bier (; born 15 April 1960) is a Danish filmmaker. She is best known for her feature films '' Brothers'' (2004), '' After the Wedding'' (2006), ''In a Better World'' (2010), and '' Bird Box'' (2018), and the TV miniseries ''The Night Man ...

and written by Bier and

Anders Thomas Jensen Anders Thomas Jensen (born 6 April 1972) is a Danish screenwriter and film director. His film '' Election Night'' won the 1998 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Life and career Jensen was born in Frederiksværk. He won the Oscar ...

. It stars

Nikolaj Lie Kaas Nikolaj Lie Kaas (; born 22 May 1973) is a Danish actor whose career rose in the 1990s. Kaas graduated from the National Theater School in Denmark in 1998. He first appeared on screen in Søren Kragh-Jacobsen's film ''The Boys from St. Petri'' i ...

Connie Nielsen Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen (born 3 July 1965) is a Danish actress. She has starred as Lucilla in the film ''Gladiator'' (2000) and as Hippolyta in the DC Extended Universe, and in the films ''Wonder Woman'' (2017), '' Justice League'' (2017), '' ...

and

Ulrich Thomsen Ulrich Thomsen (born 6 December 1963) is a Danish actor and filmmaker, known for his role of Kai Proctor in the Cinemax original series ''Banshee'' (2013-2016). Biography Ulrich Thomsen was born in (Næsby) Odense, Denmark and graduated from t ...

. The film was remade as an American production with the same title (2009), directed by

Jim Sheridan Jim Sheridan (born 6 February 1949) is an Irish playwright and filmmaker. Between 1989 and 1993, Sheridan directed two critically acclaimed films set in Ireland, '' My Left Foot'' and '' In the Name of the Father'', and later directed the fi ...

Plot

A Danish army officer, Michael (Thomsen), is sent to the

International Security Assistance Force The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was a multinational military mission in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014. It was established by United Nations Security Council United Nations Security Council Resolution 1386, Resolution 1386 pursua ...

operation in Afghanistan for three months. His first mission there is to find a young

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...

technician who had been separated from his squad some days earlier. While on the search, his

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

is shot down and he is taken as a prisoner of war, but is assumed to have been killed in action and is reported dead to his family. His wife Sarah (Nielsen) and younger brother Jannik (Kaas) both deeply mourn him, and that brings them closer together. They kiss once, but pass it off as grief and do not pursue the relationship. Meanwhile, both the officer and a young technician are locked up in a warehouse, kept without food or water. After Michael shows them how to arm and disarm an anti-aircraft missile, his captors decide the technician is no longer useful and have Michael bludgeon him to death with a lead pipe in order to save his own life. Eventually he is rescued and brought back to Denmark. The guilt of what he did forces him to lie and provide false hope that the technician may still be alive. Michael becomes unstable, spiraling down into a pit of guilt and rage, and begins to threaten and abuse his wife and tear the house apart. It finally becomes necessary for the police to intervene. Michael overreacts, pointing a policeman's pistol at the officers. After Michael is taken into custody, Jannik helps Sarah begin the repairs on the house. Later, Sarah visits Michael in prison, where he breaks down and finally admits the truth about what he did in Afghanistan.

Cast

as Sarah *

as Michael *

as Jannik *

Sarah Juel Werner Sarah Juel Werner (born 27 July 1992) is a Danish actress. She appeared in more than ten films since 2002. Selected filmography References External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Werner, Sarah Juel 1992 births Danish child actresses Danish film a ...

as Natalia (daughter) * Rebecca Løgstrup as Camilla (daughter) *

Bent Mejding Bent Mejding (born 14 January 1937) is a Danish actor, stage director and theatre manager. He won a Danish Film Academy Award in 1985 and 2007. He is married to the actress Susse Wold. Career Mejding had his debut at Folketeatret Folketeate ...

as Henning *

Solbjørg Højfeldt Solbjørg Højfeldt (born 10 June 1947, in Copenhagen) is a Danish actress. She has performed in more than fifty films since 1978. She is married to Danish actor Henning Jensen. Selected filmography }) , Nete , , - , 1997 , ''Taxa'' , E ...

as Else *

Niels Olsen Niels Olsen (born 8 March 1960) is a Danish actor. He appeared in more than forty films since 1990. Selected filmography References External links * 1960 births Living people Danish male film actors Best Actor Robert Award winner ...

as Allentoft * as Niels Peter *

Lars Hjortshøj Lars Hjortshøj (born 3 June 1967 in Hinnerup) is a Danish stand-up comedian and television and radio host. He has taken part in many Danish shows, including ''Casper & Mandrilaftalen'' and in the sit-com '' Langt fra Las Vegas''. As of February ...

as Preben 2 *

Lars Ranthe Lars Kristian Ranthe (born 26 August 1969) is a Danish film and television actor. Selected filmography Selected television work }), , Daniel (psychiatrist) , , television series , - , 2021, , '' The Chestnut Man , , Nylander , , televi ...

as Preben 1 * André Babikian as Slobodan * as J. Solvej * as Ditte * Henrik Koefoed as Bartender * Tom Mannion as Captain David Ward

Production

The film was produced by

Zentropa Zentropa, or Zentropa Entertainments, is a Danish film company started in 1992 by director Lars von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen. Zentropa is named after the train company Zentropa in the film '' Europa'' (1991), which started the col ...

in co-production with companies in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway. It received support from the

Danish Film Institute The Danish Film Institute ( da, Det Danske Filminstitut) is the national Danish agency responsible for supporting and encouraging film and cinema culture, and for conserving these in the national interest. Also known as ''Filmhuset'' ("the film ...

Swedish Film Institute The Swedish Film Institute ( sv, Svenska Filminstitutet) was founded in 1963 to support and develop the Swedish film industry. The institute is housed in the ''Filmhuset'' building located in Gärdet, Östermalm in Stockholm. The building, com ...

and Nordisk Film- & TV-Fond (Nordic Film and TV Foundation). It was primarily shot on location in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

, Denmark;

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city g ...

, Spain, was used for the Afghanistan locales.

Reception

Opera adaptation

An opera entitled ''Brothers'', based on the story of the film, was composed by Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason. It was premiered at the

Musikhuset Aarhus ''Musikhuset Aarhus'' (Aarhus Concert Hall) is a large concert hall complex in Aarhus, Denmark. Located in the city centre, Musikhuset is Aarhus' main venue for music and with seating for more than 3,600 people in total, it is the largest concert ...

in Denmark on 16 August 2017. It was commissioned by

Den Jyske Opera Den Jyske Opera, also known as the Danish National Opera, is based in Aarhus, Denmark. Established in 1947, it's Denmark's largest touring opera company, and the second only to the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. Description Founded in Aarhus in ...

. The

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major li ...

was written in English by ; the director was

Kasper Holten Kasper Holten (born 29 March 1973) is a Danish stage director. From 2011 until 2017 he was Director of Opera for the Royal Opera House in London. He is Vice President of the Board of the European Academy of Music Theatre. Career Born in Copenhage ...

. To celebrate Aarhus as the European Capital of Culture 2017, three stage works – a musical, dance, and an opera all based on films by Susanne Bier – were commissioned and performed in Musikhuset.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brothers 2004 2004 films 2000s Danish-language films 2000s English-language films Pashto-language films 2004 drama films Danish drama films Films directed by Susanne Bier Films with screenplays by Anders Thomas Jensen Films set in Afghanistan Films set in Denmark Films shot in Denmark Films shot in Almería War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) films Nordisk Film films Zentropa films Films about brothers Films adapted into operas 2004 multilingual films Danish multilingual films