Quase Dois Irmaos – Almost Brothers (2004)

Directed by: Lucia Murat | 102 minutes | drama, crime | Actors: Werner Schünemann, Antonio Pompeo, Caco Ciocler, Flavio Bauraqui, Maria Flor, Marieta Severo, Christina Aché, Brunno Abrahão, Pablo Ricardo Belo, Renato de Souza, Erick Oliveira, Babu Santana

On the basis of two completely different lives that keep crossing each other, ‘Quase Dois Irmãos’ gives you a nice look at the Brazilian society of the past fifty years. Samba, dictatorship, crime, passion, carnival, and the favelas (slums): everything Brazil is known or notorious for, is featured in this film. Yet ‘Quase Dois Irmãos’ manages to avoid the pitfalls of the clichés and that is a major achievement. This was especially successful because the story of the friendship between Miguel and Jorge does take place in Brazil and also says a lot about that society, but ultimately transcends that context.

‘Quase Dois Irmãos’ is primarily a film about friendship itself, and how friendships are tested as people grow up, grow apart and hurt each other. Another way to prevent the film from painting a clichéd picture of Brazil is that most of the film is set within the walls of the prison where Miguel and Jorge are in the 1970s. That prison, and the way in which people interact with each other there, says a lot about those people themselves. Miguel turns out to be an idealist, who is even willing to get his hands dirty to achieve his ideals. But he will never know what the hard life is like for the real poor, simply because, even in prison, he never experienced that real poverty. Jorge, on the other hand, knows that life and is hardened by it. Although both men want to separate their friendship from those social differences, that turns out to be impossible. In the 1950s it was mainly the parents of the boys who had a hard time with it, in the 1970s it was their comrades, and in 2004 they were no longer able to bridge the social gap themselves.

It is subtly made clear that the personal connection and the social situation cannot be seen in isolation from each other. The men are constantly forced to choose their friendship or the social environment from which they come. The fact that that choice also clashes with Miguel’s utopian ideals may make it even more difficult for him. This is nicely made visible by the ultimate separation that takes place in prison between political prisoners and ‘ordinary’ prisoners. Although these political prisoners are incarcerated because they strive for equality, it appears that they and the ‘ordinary’ criminals find it difficult to live together. This dilemma is also shaped in 2004, especially by the generation gap between Miguel and his teenage daughter Juliana, who is in love with Deley, one of Jorge’s front men.

‘Quase Dois Irmãos’ is a moving film. Because of the good actors and the realistically dramatic events, but especially because the complicated reality of the friendship between Miguel and Jorge is given space. The film is careful not to make a simple choice and to portray people as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Both Miguel’s idealism and Jorge’s cynicism, and especially the consequences of their ideas and actions, are shown critically and understandingly. As a result, especially in the scenes set in the 1970s, both people become flesh-and-blood people. With both their quirks, but above all with real feelings.