Brothers | Secrets and lies

Inspired by a news story in France, the film tells the drama of two boys aged 5 and 7 abandoned by their mother after the war and who survived seven years alone in the forest. Decades later, they meet again to look back on their past.

There’s nothing worse in cinema than a true story that seems… implausible. This is the case with Brothersthe second feature film by Olivier Casas, starring Mathieu Kassovitz and Yvan Attal. To make his film, the filmmaker based himself on the story of his friend Michel de Robert de Lafregeyre, who survived seven years with his brother in the forest during the 1950s. Patrice, the eldest, unfortunately! ended his life 30 years ago. That’s why the survivor decided to tell his story.

When the film was released in France last spring, an investigation appeared in the newspaper South West questioned the veracity of the facts, sparking controversy. The authors of Brothers defended their film. Real-life drama about abandoned children? Or an embellished story of an unhappy childhood? It doesn’t matter, the important thing is to know if the film is good or not…

The answer is no. Despite the strength of the acting of the two star actors, Olivier Casas’s direction is bad and full of clichés about fraternity and male solidarity. The two brothers (one who became a doctor, the other an architect) will leave Paris at the start of the film. They meet in a cabin in Abitibi, to hunt hares, make campfires and play guitar, remembering their survivalist childhood that they hid from their loved ones.

Built on two temporalities, the film constantly moves from the childhood to the adulthood of the protagonists. An off-screen narration, with the voice of Yvan Attal, constantly explains the images that we see on the screen… No doubt because the director, due to lack of means and talent, is unable to convey the harsh reality of drama of these wild children…

“Our mother still passed on to us an ability to abandon everything without looking back,” says the narrator to explain their new escape. Both men are unable to forget the injustice of their childhood. They rebuilt their lives while keeping their dark secret to themselves. By means of many lies. We can understand them.

However, the filmmaker’s treatment of the tragic outcome of this story is questionable. Mental health and suicide are serious issues. We cannot approach them with a final scene that seems written on the corner of the table.

In the room