The movie
Brother’s Keeper
When Memo falls mysteriously ill, Yusuf is forced to struggle against the school’s repressive authorities - all distracted by their own petty grievances - to try to help his friend.
Length: 85 min
Country: Roemenië, Turkije
Language spoken: Koerdisch, Turks
Language subtitles: Engels
Cast: ISAMET YILDIZ, EKIN KOÇ, MAHIR İPEK, MELIH SELÇUK, CANSU FIRINC
Director: Ferit Karahan
Release date: 2021
Description
DUTCH PREMIÈRE
Winner of the International Critics prize in the Panorama section of this year’s Berlin festival, Ferit Karahan’s drama is set at a harsh boarding school for Kurdish boys located in the mountains of Eastern Anatolia. Yusuf (Samet Yıldız) and Memo, 11 years old, are best friends. When Memo falls mysteriously ill, Yusuf is forced to struggle against the school’s repressive authorities - all distracted by their own petty grievances - to try to help his friend. A gripping drama with political undertones (the boys and school workers are Kurdish; the teachers are Turkish), the film comes from a long tradition: it is, as Karahan has noted, ‘a film of fear’.
‘Superb… There’s a crystalline precision and angularity to the plotting, which grows more compelling with each layer of culpability that is unpeeled… [T]here are similarities with Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, although Brother’s Keeper is a leaner and more propulsive piece of storytelling.’ — Wendy Ide, Screen
Winner of the International Critics prize in the Panorama section of this year’s Berlin festival, Ferit Karahan’s drama is set at a harsh boarding school for Kurdish boys located in the mountains of Eastern Anatolia. Yusuf (Samet Yıldız) and Memo, 11 years old, are best friends. When Memo falls mysteriously ill, Yusuf is forced to struggle against the school’s repressive authorities - all distracted by their own petty grievances - to try to help his friend. A gripping drama with political undertones (the boys and school workers are Kurdish; the teachers are Turkish), the film comes from a long tradition: it is, as Karahan has noted, ‘a film of fear’.
‘Superb… There’s a crystalline precision and angularity to the plotting, which grows more compelling with each layer of culpability that is unpeeled… [T]here are similarities with Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, although Brother’s Keeper is a leaner and more propulsive piece of storytelling.’ — Wendy Ide, Screen
