The Ukrainian feature film "Brothers. The Final Confession" finally opened in theaters in September, two years after it was made. The movie, a psychological drama, tells the story about two helpless old brothers who live next to each other in the wooden huts far from civilization on the hills of the Carpathian Mountains. They don't speak to each other because of an old feud but still compete to see who will live longer.
While many filmmakers look for plots in Ukraine’s history and literature, the film’s director, Viktoria Trofimenko, went a different way. She adapted the Swedish novel “Sweetness” by Torgny Lindgren to the modern Ukrainian realities.
More than 4,000 people saw the movie at the opening weekend in the Ukrainian theaters – a good number for a Ukrainian-made art house movie, according to the distribution company screening the movie.
The authors postponed its release in theaters so that it could debut at international film festivals. The production cost approximately Hr 16 million, half of which came from the State Film Agency, the rest from private investors.
The movie offers insight into the character of the feud-obsessed protagonists. The movie starts with a writer coming to the village to speak about God’s fools. Unable to leave the place because of a blizzard, she stays in the house of one of the brothers and learns their story.
The reason for the feud is a woman, the wife of one brother and the mistress of the other.
“She wasn’t his,” the younger brother Voytko told the writer, revealing that the men still compete for the long-dead woman.
The performance of Natalka Polovynka, who played the role of the writer, brought her the Best Leading Actress Award at the Moscow International Film Festival in 2014.
Although the brothers don’t communicate, they still care whether the other is alive and acknowledge the strong connection between them, even though the horrifying events in their pasts keep them estranged and unforgiving.
The tangled timeline is a little distracting. But the puzzle weaves into a coherent narrative before the ending.
The “Brothers” plot touches the theme of sexuality in an unconventional way, focusing on temptation and atonement. The movie features a scene of one of the old men getting a casual hand job from the writer. In another scene, the same brother is seen making cuts on the thigh of his mistress, marking how many times they had sex.
Despite its Swedish origin, the “Brothers” plot is well-adjusted to the Ukrainian context. The characters speak local hutsuls dialect, which is sometimes understandable even for a Ukrainian-speaking audience. The movie’s details connect the viewer to the world of a quiet Carpathian village – the design of the houses, traditional clothing and names, local food and the lingering sound of a Jew’s harp.
Electricity is the only utility available here. To get water, villagers melt snow on an old stove heated with wood and use an outdoor toilet. Even though it is set in the extreme conditions, the story is universal and international in the belief of Trofimenko, the director.
“Brothers. The Final Confession” will be screened with English subtitles on Oct. 10 at 5:30 p.m in Kinopanorama (19 Shota Rustaveli St.). Tickets are Hr 50.
Kyiv Post staff writer Yuliana Romanyshyn can be reached at [email protected].
