Brother (11 April 2005)
As part of the International Week, the Caltech Russian Club screened Brat (Brother). The movie tells the story of an ingenuous young man who comes to St. Petersburg after a mysterious stint at the army. He is innocent in the ways of the world and is the hearty sort of chap -- a perfect ambassador for Russia. For all his camaraderie and easy-going charm he is nonetheless an extremely sophisticated assassin. For him though, that presents no moral dilemma. He uses his fighting skills both as a vigilante to browbeat lowly hooligan ticket-offenders on buses and as a killer for hire with an uncanny knowledge of guns. One act never grates irritably on the other. He loves his music loud and blaring, his friends the downtrodden and his women as they come. The movie also throws helpful insights into the new Russia. St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad as his cynical brother corrects him) is a town that is trapped in a bizarre time of punk and acid, mohawk and ganja, McDonalds and empty seatless trams. Free markets never seem in imminent ascendancy over the old ways of the Communist world and all are trapped in the cold, brutal climes of the Arctic winter.