MY BRETHREN, the love that is stronger than the disease – Critical

For his first feature film, MY BROTHERS, Bertrand Guerry prompt with brilliance the viewer to share the life, illness and the secrets of a family in the middle of the rock independent.

ll emerges from MY BROTHERS, the first film of Bertrand Guerry, a lot of energy and intensity. It comes out washed, almost KO standing. We feel the need to digest it and let it decant a bit of this material emotional almost too diverse and multiple topics. The way in which these emotions invade precisely the characters makes also the originality of MY BROTHERS, because they are conveyed by other modes of expression as the spoken word. And it is fascinating to realize that the messages of the characters are as strong as if they were communicating with the language. There are indeed many silences, glances that speak volumes, the violence of certain gestures, the dance or the scene in which the characters evolve. And especially, there is the music, full-fledged character in the film, which continues to bring together the two brothers Rocco (David Arribe), Eddy (Thomas Guerry) and their sister Emma (Sophie Davout, also screenwriter). A bit like if MY BROTHERS had been designed as a magnificent setting for its very exciting soundtrack, which alternates between Talisco Everyone, Manu Chao, Philémon Cimon , or even Black Lilys Wrong.One of the key issues of MY BROTHERS is the disability of Rocco. It suffers from an orphan disease of Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressive, more commonly known as the disease of the Stone Man. Bertrand Guerry, who had already made a film of awareness to help the association in charge of fund-raising for research, just to receive the beautiful label “Cinema Fair” with MY BROTHERS. It is, in fact, committed to donate 50% of proceeds to the association.

Rocco sees his / her body dry and nervous disintegrate little by little and lock it away in this ossification, progressive of the muscles, tendons and ligaments. The singer who was jumping happily, as the relive the flash-back, has left room for the sick and curled up, condemned to live in a wheelchair. The lives of his brother and his son Simon (Sacha Guerry), such collateral damage of the disease, are now entirely dedicated to Rocco.

MY BROTHERS is a film of light that celebrates the love of the symbiotic between the two brothers united by music beyond the illness

Bertrand Guerry door fortunately on Rocco a look, without pathos or victimization, making it sometimes even unsympathetic. It does very well share with the audience the feelings of Rocco: the frustration, the sadness, the anger or the laugh of despair. But it also shows that there may be some advantages for a patient to know that it is incurable. Indeed, it can decide when to make peace with his torment and his family, forgive, and celebrate life and finally, give love.

Because, despite what we guess dramas secrets and resentments that bind siblings and envelop their lives, there’s a lot of love in MY BROTHERS. This perception without doubt comes from the constitution of the team of the film, which, apart from David Arribe, is essentially family, just as the inspiration of the subject. And thanks to the tremendous play of actors, the sublime love between two brothers, love awkward father’s dented towards his son or the love of Eddy for his nephew are particularly touching.All this small world lives on the sunny Island of Yeu, beautifully filmed (as was the Bay of the Somme in 2 hours of Paris). You can see in this refuge surrounded by water, a metaphor which echoes with the confinement of the body of Rocco: the freedom of the island, facing the prison of a body. The body, a red thread of MY BRETHREN, is therefore at the heart of many dance scenes as it is one of the modes of expression of Eddy. The job of his interpreter, brother of the director, there is without doubt no stranger, since he is a choreographer. Because Eddy didn’t speak and his face is walled up in the silence reminds one of the characters traumatized to Cease-Fire. But, when we encounter a third disability, Johannes, become blind, we say that it starts to make a lot of male characters become disabled and capita on this island. But Bertrand Guerry does not appear to be a man to leave things to chance, it will be seen that all the pieces of the puzzle came together gently, and that the presence of all the characters will have a meaning.

Because the producer takes by the hand the viewer empathetic and guide to many explanations. But the risk is that it does not leave enough freedom of interpretation and to reinforce the idea of the departure of too full and too desire to do good, that there is sometimes a tendency to end up as part of a first movie. Thus, some of the characters of MY BROTHERS are not completely convincing in their usefulness to the plot. As Juliette, the girlfriend of Simon, and niece of the doctor who treats Rocco, and of which we never see the parents. Or the little boy that we see revolve around Eddy, that leads to false tracks. MY BROTHERS is therefore a film of light that celebrates the love of the symbiotic between the two brothers united by music beyond the illness and who picks up the empathy of the viewer with a beautiful palette of emotions.

Sylvie-Noelle

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