Michael J. Long’s harrowing directorial debut

baby brother, Set in Liverpool, it’s not an easy watch for a number of reasons. This gritty drama is firmly in the tradition of the British kitchen sink realism movement, featuring plenty of brutality, both emotional and physical. It also demands a lot from its audience in terms of storytelling, depicting two different days several years apart and alternating between black and white of the past and color of the present.

Not surprisingly, the results are sometimes disjointed. But Michael J. Lang’s directorial debut showcases a bold style rarely seen in first-time filmmakers, and there’s no denying the raw power of this harrowing film, which had its world premiere at the Oldenburg Film Festival .

The story revolves around the relationship between Adam (Paddy Rowan) and his younger brother Liam (Brian Comer), who don’t exactly enjoy the benefits of a happy family life. Their mother (Julia Rose) struggles with drug and alcohol addiction and is the kind of person who screams “Get a job or get out!” to Adam while she was drinking. Their stepfather violently abused her, once holding a kitchen knife to her throat in front of his sons.

Despite this, the brothers remain close, and their prankster tendencies are depicted in a very funny scene in which they sneak into the theater during rehearsals and engage in mocking, pretentious analysis of the performance. joke. Adam is deeply protective of Liam, who dreams of becoming a professional boxer. He worked hard to make extra money to compensate his mother for the money she spent on drugs, even mowing lawns for his elderly neighbors. But he was ultimately unable to prevent himself from falling into violence and drug addiction due to environmental problems, and ultimately paid a heavy price for it.

Five years later, Adam returns to visit his brother, who is now pregnant. “Liam told me everything about you,” she said calmly when they first met. “I hope it’s good,” Adam replied hopefully. “Not exactly,” she countered. One of the most disturbing episodes involves the sudden appearance of a childhood friend (the terrifying AJ Jones) with a huge bloody gash on his bald head. We soon find out that Adam’s efforts to protect his younger siblings have failed, and Liam has fallen into the same troublesome behavior as him.

The filmmaker, who co-wrote a screenplay with Tom Sidney, paints a searing portrait of the kind of intergenerational trauma that is all too common when economic hardship intersects. Despite its obviously low budget, the film looks great in both black and white and color thanks to David Short’s versatile cinematography.

Both leads are excellent, especially in how deftly they portray the ways in which their characters have changed or stayed the same over the course of five years. Rowan is especially haunting in the contemporary setting, showing the pathos of a man who realizes he has no control over his own fate or the fate of his brothers. baby brother The ending is ambiguous, but only the most optimistic viewers will see a bright future for these characters defeated by life, both literally and figuratively.