The Brother from Another Planet

An escaped slave falls out of the sky into New York. He looks human, he is Black, one foot has three toes, and he cannot speak. He walks into a bar in Harlem, stays there, finds work, and discovers he can heal any machine he touches. Two white men in suits are hunting him, and they are aliens too, sent to take the runaway back. Because the hero never speaks, the film turns into a mirror for everyone who does: the men at the bar, the dealers, the street preachers, the cops all look at him and end up describing themselves. The parallel between escaped slave and Harlem is never quite stated aloud, but his arrival by way of Ellis Island is not an accident. John Sayles wrote and directed. Joe Morton has the lead, and Sayles himself plays one of the pursuers. The budget was three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. With that money it became one of the most cited science-fiction films of American independent cinema, shot on Harlem streets in mostly existing locations. Who it is for: anyone who likes low-budget social science fiction and eighties independents. Who it is not for: anyone who wants effects. The space material is deliberately cheap, the pacing wanders, and the last stretch is the weakest part of the script.