''Brother'' is a 2022 Canadian drama film, written, produced and directed by Clement Virgo. An adaptation of David Chariandy's award-winning novel of the same name,"David Chariandy's novel Brother optioned for film with Clement Virgo at the helm"
CBC Books, September 7, 2018. the film centres on the relationship between Francis and Michael, two

Black Canadian Black Canadians () are Canadians of full or partial Afro-Caribbean or sub-Saharan African descent. Black Canadian settlement and immigration patterns can be categorized into two distinct groups. The majority of Black Canadians are descendants ...

brothers growing up in the

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

district of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

in the early 1990s.Radheyan Simonpillai
"Brother brings Scarborough to the world"
. '' Now'', August 17, 2022. The film stars Aaron Pierre as Francis and Lamar Johnson as Michael, with supporting cast members including Kiana Madeira, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Lovell Adams-Gray, Maurice Dean Wint, and Dwain Murphy. The novel's optioning for film was announced in 2018, and the film went into production in fall 2021. It is the second Canadian film in as many years, following ''

'' in 2021, to be set in the Galloway Road neighbourhood of Scarborough, and Virgo's first theatrical feature film since 2007's '' Poor Boy's Game''. The film premiered at the

2022 Toronto International Film Festival The 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 8 to 18, 2022. The 2022 festival was staged primarily in-person; a small selection of films were offered on the Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox platform, but this represente ...

on September 9, 2022. It was also screened as the closing film of the 2022

Calgary International Film Festival The Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) is a film festival held annually in Calgary, Alberta, in late September and early October. CIFF is the largest international film festival in Alberta and the sixth largest in Canada. In 2020, thei ...

and as the opening film of the 2022 FIN Atlantic Film Festival.

Synopsis

Francis and Michael are brothers living in Canada and sons of Caribbean immigrants from

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. In the summer of 1991, the young men immerse themselves in the hip-hop scene of

. When his childhood sweetheart Aisha returns to their neighborhood for the first time in 10 years, Michael is forced to reconsider a family tragedy. Growing up as young black boys in a neighborhood prone to gang violence and

police brutality Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or Public order policing, a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, b ...

, his older brother Francis had to be Michael's best friend, protector and even parent at the same time, because their

single mother A single parent is a person who has a child or children but does not have a spouse or live-in partner to assist in the upbringing or support of the child. Reasons for becoming a single parent include death, divorce, break-up, abandonment, bec ...

worked shifts as a nurse. As they grew older, Francis and Michael parted ways, but the unconditional love between the brothers and their mother continued. The film uses a non-linear structure, switching back and forth between the boys' childhood, their teen years leading up to and the lingering aftermath of Francis' death, all building toward the ultimate revelation in the film's climax of how Francis died. Although the film doesn't explicitly address

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

themes in dialogue, a key scene toward the end of the film depicts Francis being physically intimate with his friend Jelly, suggesting that some of his emotional issues around their father's absence from their lives stem from being queer.

Cast

* Aaron Pierre as Francis * Lamar Johnson as Michael * Marsha Stephanie Blake as Ruth * Kiana Madeira as Aisha * Lovell Adams-Gray as Jelly * Maurice Dean Wint as Samuel * Dwain Murphy as Dru

Reception

Critical response

In ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', Barry Hertz wrote, "The spirit of what Scarborough represents – for Chariandy, and for Clement – is undoubtedly present in every lovingly composed frame of Brother." Peter Howell, film critic for ''

The Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands division. The newspaper was establis ...

'' gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and added, "A world is revealed, brilliantly." Brian Tallerico, editor for the film review website '' RogerEbert.com'' published, "There’s such gracefulness to the filmmaking here, cutting back and forth across time, building like a thriller." For ''

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'', Valerie Complex wrote that "''Brother'' is a film that reaffirms why I love movies. The narrative asks so many vital questions about Black life and masculinity, but most of all: If Black boys are raising themselves to adulthood, where do they turn for support? This is the ultimate dilemma Francis and Michael find themselves in. Brother isn’t just another “Black” film. This is a vital piece of cinema that hasn’t received the buzz it deserves. I don’t want to see this fly under the radar, and I hope others will be open-minded enough to witness the genius of Clement Virgo and these young actors."

Accolades

The film was named to TIFF's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for 2022. It won 12

Canadian Screen Awards The Canadian Screen Awards () are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media ( web series) productions. Given annually by the Academy ...

at the

11th Canadian Screen Awards The 11th Canadian Screen Awards, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, honoured achievements in Canadian film, television and digital media production in 2022.BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

''), and the best performance by any film since '' Night Zoo (Un zoo la nuit)'' won 13

Genie Awards The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978), known as the "Etrog Awards" for sculpt ...

at the 9th Genie Awards in 1988.Noel Ransome and Nicole Thompson
"Clement Virgo’s film ‘Brother’ wins a record 12 Canadian Screen Awards"
''

'', April 13, 2023.

References

External links

* * * {{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Brother'' , list = {{ACCT Best Picture {{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture {{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding International Motion Picture 2022 films 2022 drama films 2022 LGBTQ-related films 2020s Canadian films 2020s English-language films Best Picture Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners Black Canadian films Canadian drama films Canadian LGBTQ-related films English-language Canadian films Films about brothers Films based on Canadian novels Films directed by Clement Virgo Films scored by Todor Kobakov Films set in 1991 Films set in Toronto Films shot in Toronto LGBTQ Black Canadian culture 2020s LGBTQ-related drama films