«Брат»: портрет эпохи

Brother: Portrait of an Era

C1 · Advanced · non-fiction · 8 scenes · Free to read

An advanced non-fiction essay on Aleksei Balabanov's 1997 film «Брат» (Brother). It reads the film as a mirror of post-Soviet Russia: the collapse of the USSR and the chaotic 'wild nineties', the lost generation of war veterans, an economy of poverty and crime, a moral vacuum embodied by an ambiguous antihero, the film's controversial xenophobia and nationalism (examined critically), its iconic soundtrack, and its afterlife as a national myth.

Read «Брат»: портрет эпохи in Russian

Characters

The essayist (Автор) — Your guide
Danila Bagrov (Данила Багров) — The ambiguous antihero
Aleksei Balabanov (Балабанов) — The director
Nautilus Pompilius («Наутилус») — The voice of a generation

Vocabulary from this story

фильм — film
режиссёр — director
герой — protagonist
зритель — viewer
образ — image
сюжет — plot
саундтрек — soundtrack
музыка — music
культура — culture
критик — critic
история — history
эпоха — era