vernon film society
Bringing the best in world and Canadian film to film lovers of Vernon and the North Okanagan
MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD
Director: Daniele Luchetti
Cast: Elio Germano, Riccardo Scamarcio, Luca Zingaretti, Diane Fleri
Run Time: 108 minutes
Country: Italy/France
Year: 2008
Language: Italian with English subtitles
Rating: Not yet rated
Reviews: www.metacritic.com/video/titles/mybrotherisanonlychild
Official Site: www.mybrotherfilm.co.uk
My Brother Is an Only Child, a hit at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, alsowon over critics and audiences at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival®, where it had its North American premiere. Directed by Daniele Luchetti and co-written with Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli – the duo behind the highly successful Italian epic The Best of Youth – the film sketches a beautifully expressive tale of rivalry, love and political differences. Set in Latina, Italy, My Brother Is an Only Child revolves around a working-class family forced to confront severe political and personal choices. The contrasting lives of two brothers serve to motivate the narrative chronicle of Italy’s troubled years in the late sixties and seventies.
Accio (Elio Germano), the youngest of three kids, is eager to set himself apart from his older, left-leaning brother Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio), and achieves this by courting the local Fascist movement and its leader Mario Nastri (Luca Zingaretti). Manrico, by contrast, sits on the other side of the political fence. He quickly gravitates toward the Communist party and starts organizing the local factory workers. The two brothers manage to remain friends despite their divergent beliefs, but their relationship undergoes a different kind of challenge when Accio’s attraction to Manrico’s girlfriend Francesca (Diane Fleri), also a committed left-wing organizer, can no longer be hidden. Adapted from Antonio Pennacch’s novel Il Fasciocomunista, the film effectively balances both the volatile emotions and the political rivalry at play, never allowing either to overpower the compelling story. While politics may induce conflict, they are also changeable over time, as different realities and feelings come into play.
As the boys grow older, both face choices that affect their personal and public lives, and they learn that blood ties are not to be taken lightly and My Brother Is an Only Child captures the full spectrum of what this means for a family living through precarious times.
“Petraglia and Rulli once again display their gift for bringing the texture of reality to family drama, for creating people and situations that involve us completely. My Brother Is an Only Child is not the only film that does this, but it's a product that's in shorter and shorter supply every year.” - Los Angeles Times
“What makes My Brother Is an Only Child so alive and entertaining is how it dramatizes the endless tug-of-war between political conviction and personal experience--the way the lines twist and blur and finally implode.” - New York Magazine
