A Brother’s Love

Sophia, in her thirties with a completed doctorate and no job, lives with her brother Karim. The bond between them builds an almost closed world. When Karim starts a relationship with the doctor Sophia goes to for an abortion, the balance breaks. Monia Chokri wrote and directed her first film. Anne-Elisabeth Bosse plays Sophia, Patrick Hivon plays Karim. Chokri was known as an actor from Xavier Dolan's films, and the formal energy here carries that influence. The style is distinct: fast dialogue, sudden close-ups, odd colour, and formal jokes constantly interrupting. The subject is siblinghood and jealousy, told in the language of a romantic relationship, and the discomfort is deliberate. Sophia's academic unemployment is the second thread: an education that pays nothing and belonging nowhere as forty approaches. It won a special jury prize in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. Who it is for: viewers who like Quebec cinema and stylised relationship comedy. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a calm telling; the film speaks loudly throughout.