French Film Review: Frères

This astonishing film tells the true story of two little boys, aged five and seven, who fled into the forest in 1948, having been abandoned by their mother. They managed to survive, living wild, for seven years, forming a bond like no other. We meet them decades later, just as the past and its secrets are about to catch up with them.
Michel, a successful architect, is busy finalising a big project when he receives a phone call informing him that his brother, Patrice, has suddenly disappeared without a trace. Without a word to his wife and children, Michel sets out on his brother’s trail, knowing he will find him in the deepest reaches of northernmost Canada. When he tracks Patrice down, he comes to understand that despite his brother living a fulfilled life, he misses the exhilaration of their exceptional childhood. Those times of freedom, albeit of suffering too, were Patrice’s best years, it seems. The unbreakable bond between the two brothers was what allowed them to survive in the wilderness. But will it be enough, all these years later, to help Patrice get back on track?
It was a chance meeting with the real-life Michel which inspired director Olivier Casas to write the script (Michel helped) and make this beautifully shot, simply told and very tender film. As well as depicting the upturned world following the Second World War, it’s a celebration of nature and its fundamental importance to human life. But ultimately this is a film about brotherly love. Asked what he would say to Patrice if he walked into the bar he was in, Michel said: “We would hug each other and say nothing because there would be nothing to say to each other.” Not a dry eye…
Director: Olivier Casas
Starring: Mathieu Kassovitz, Yvan Attal, Alma Jodorowsky
From France Today Magazine
Lead photo credit : Freres CR ADNP Traveling Angel Films Zinc
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