Brother-2
Encyclopedia
Released in 2000, Brother 2 is the sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...

 to the groundbreaking 1997 post-Soviet crime film Brother
Brother (1997 film)
Brother is a 1997 Russian crime film directed by Aleksei Balabanov and starring Sergei Bodrov, Jr. The sequel Brother 2 was released in 2000. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:...

. The story takes place about a year after the events that occurred in the first film.

Plot synopsis

The film opens with Danila Bagrov (Sergey Bodrov) on a television show with two friends from the First Chechen war
First Chechen War
The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...

. All three friends now live in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, and Ilya (Kirill Pirogov) is a professional programmer who works for the State Historical Museum
State Historical Museum
The State Historical Museum of Russia is a museum of Russian history wedged between Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Its exhibitions range from relics of the prehistoric tribes inhabiting present-day Russia, through priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty...

 on Red Square
Red Square
Red Square is a city square in Moscow, Russia. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod...

 whilst Konstantin (Kostya) Gromov (Alexander Dyachenko
Alexander Dyachenko
Alexander Dyachenko is a Russian sprint canoer who has competed since the late 2000s. He won two bronze medals at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships .-References:*...

) works in the security department for the Nikolayevsky Bank. Danila himself reveals his ambition to enroll in medicine at the university.

After the program, in the banya
Banya (sauna)
Banya in Russian can refer to any kind of steam bath, but usually to the Russian type of sauna. In Bulgarian, banya usually refers to a bath and bathing...

 Kostya reveals to his friends that his twin brother Dmitry (also played by Dyachenko) is an ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 player for the Chicago Blackhawks
Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won four Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926, most recently coming in 2009-10...

 and is being extorted by an American 'entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

' Mr. Mennis (Gary Houston). Yet Mennis right now is in Moscow meeting Kostya's employer, the owner of the bank Valentin Belkin (Sergey Makovetsky) to discuss a business proposal.

Almost simultaneously in a different part of Russia, that same television program was watched by Danila's brother Viktor Bagrov (Viktor Sukhorukov
Viktor Sukhorukov
Viktor Ivanovich Sukhorukov is a Russian actor. He has appeared in over 50 films and television shows since 1974. He starred in Happy Days, which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.-Selected filmography:...

) and their mother. Seeing as her older son has turned into a drinking militsiya sergeant, she sends him to Moscow to seek his brother there as his home life has brought little happiness to her.

While Danila begins an affair with a Russian pop-star Irina Saltykova (plays herself), Kostya approaches Belkin and pleads to remind Mennis about his brother. Belkin agrees, however Dmitry Gromov is of little concern to both as Belkin has investment interests in American companies, and needs Mennis's help to bypass the standing law which prohibits foreign capital. After the talk Mennis returns to Chicago. The importance of the new friendship with Mennis prompts Belkin to remove Kostya altogether.

That evening Danila stops at Kostya's apartment to discover his friend shot and sets out to avenge his friend. By the time Viktor arrives Danila and Ilya have stocked up arms and now set their sights on Belkin. During the visit at Belkin's son's gimnazia
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 concert and posing first as a new teacher Danila confronts him alone, and threatening him finds out that the murder of Kostya was carried out on Mennis's orders. Belkin also reveals all he knows about Mennis and his illegal pornography operations in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

.

However Belkin refuses to let Danila off, and begins to track him, he first sends his thugs to the museum, but they arrive too late to catch Danila, Viktor and Ilya. Afterwards they spot the same stolen Volvo
Volvo
AB Volvo is a Swedish builder of commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses and construction equipment. Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems, aerospace components and financial services...

 which Danila arrived at the gimnazia near the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment
Kotelnicheskaya Embankment
Kotelnicheskaya Embankment is a street on the northern bank of Moskva River in central Tagansky District of Moscow, Russia. It spans from the mouth of Yauza River to the point one block west from Bolshoy Krashokholmsky Bridge , where it changes name to Goncharnaya Embankment.-Kotelnicheskaya...

, where Saltykova lives. Warned by her chauffeur
Chauffeur
A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine.Originally such drivers were always personal servants of the vehicle owner, but now in many cases specialist chauffeur service companies, or individual drivers provide...

 Boris the Bagrov brothers ambush the mobsters using a Russian M1910 Maxim
Russian M1910 Maxim
The PM M1910 was a heavy machine gun used by the Russian Army during World War I and the Red Army during World War II. It was adopted in 1910 and was derived from Hiram Maxim's Maxim gun, chambered for the standard Russian 7.62x54mmR rifle cartridge...

 taken in the Historical Museum to destroy their pursuers.

Afterwards the two brothers fly to America separately, and Belkin's attempts to intercept Danila to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 fail, even the Chicago-based Ukrainian mafia who Belkin alerted are not successful to catch him there. The reason being, Viktor is on the flight to Chicago whilst Danila instead lands in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 where he travels to the Russian Jewish Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is an oceanside neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. As of 2000, it has a population of 75,692 with a total of 31,228 households.-Location:...

 community. There he buys a car to travel to Chicago by road, but it breaks down just outside Pennsylvania.

Stranded he is saved when a trucker Ben Johnson (Ray Toler) picks him up. Despite Danila's limited English, the two become close friends and on his way to Chicago, Ben shows Danila much about American life. Upon their arrival in Chicago, Ben offers Danila to pick up a prostitute, however the bald Marylin, turns out to be a Russian Dasha (Darya Lesnikova), who is owned by a Black American pimp
Pimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...

.

Having determined that the bald man Viktor is a professional assassin Tatarin and that he was on board the flight to Chicago, Belkin warns Manis and alerts the Ukrainian mafia in Chicago to find him. Viktor meanwhile landing in the Ukrainian diaspora
Ukrainian diaspora
The Ukrainian diaspora is the global community of ethnic Ukrainians, especially those who maintain some kind of connection, even if ephemeral, to the land of their ancestors and maintain their feeling of Ukrainian national identity within their own local community.-1608 To 1880:After the loss...

 district in Chicago quickly begins to spend his money wisely and enjoy the American lifestyle and making tours of the city.

In Chicago Danila first attempts to meet up with Dmitry Gromov, but he is unable to catch him. Nor are his attempts to rendezvous with Viktor successful as Viktor is too much enjoying his life. Badly needing a translator he decides to find Dasha, and travels to the Black neighbourhood. Just before he can run away with her, he is savagely beaten by Dasha's pimp's henchmen. The Police let him go on the basis of recognizance and he gets revenge by tricking the same group who beat him up into selling him weapons, which he steals by subterfuge. Afterwards Dasha's pimp attempts to get even with her but is in turn killed by Danila.

Finally Viktor and Danila meet up and the three enjoy an evening campfire on the beach of Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

 where they share their experiences and attitude towards American society. Dasha tells her story of how she came in the early 1990s as an exchange student, then worked in escort service in New York before finally degrading into a street hooker. Viktor on the other hand is much too impressed with the power of money that drives America. The evening is broken up by homeless black man stumbles across them and Danila called him in Russian negr what the black man considered as an insult nigger (however in Russian it is not an insult).

Afterwards Danila begins to finally move in against Mennis, and first hits his front Club Metro, expecting Mennis to be there he sneaks a weapon into the back of the club and then during a Rock concert evening involving Bi-2
Bi-2
Bi-2 is a Russian rock band with Belarusian origin, formed in the 80's in Minsk, Belarus. It was one of the most successful with many sales and chart-hits in Russia. Bi-2 was awarded MTV Russian Music Awards for Best Rock Act in 2007.-Pre-history:...

 he kills every member of Mennis's mafia he encounters in the basement but Mennis turns out to be absent. Viktor instead visits Ukrainian emigrants restaurants and is eventually found by the Ukrainian mafia members, and has to kill the hitman but not before learning of the mafia's operations.

The next morning Danila climbs 50 or so floors on a skyscraper's fire escape
Fire escape
A fire escape is a special kind of emergency exit, usually mounted to the outside of a building or occasionally inside but separate from the main areas of the building. It provides a method of escape in the event of a fire or other emergency that makes the stairwells inside a building inaccessible...

 to reach Mennis's office. There he finally confronts him alone and after a strong statement makes Mennis to hand over the money he owed to Dmitry. After giving Dmitry his money, Danila sets off back home to Moscow, but accidentally drives via the Ukrainian neighbourhood where they becomes witnesses to a police siege around the former headquarters of the Ukrainian mafia after Viktor killed everyone inside. As he is dragged out handcuffed he shouts his intentions to stay in America.

The film ends with Danila and Dasha taking off to Moscow.

Impact of the film

Just like the first film Brat-2 was an immense success. The film picked up on the changing attitudes of the Russian public in the late 1990s. It also shows the erosion of a common stereotype of the perfect West, which is seen as not so perfect. It shows the immense divide between the Black and White communities with the former ghettoised. Also it shows that just like in Russia, the high profile businessmen can have very criminal activities, too. One of the most powerful messages was the final confrontation when Danila asks Manis if money really gives one strength and power, and instead argues that strength and power can only be found in the truth.

At the same time, the film highlights the good America, but from a different perspective not in the façade of skyscrapers and the "American Dream
American Dream
The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each...

", but in the American people who like in Russia come in all colours and social status, like the Black TV presenter Lisa Jeffrey who has a short affair with Danila and the trucker Ben who at the very end of the film, accepts an audio cassette with Russian music which the two listened whilst driving. Finally on humorous note the film carried across the message that hardships and people's discomfort with life exists everywhere as shown by the two complaining taxi drivers both in Moscow and in New York.

The film was however criticised for being too Russo-centric and in extreme cases the elements of racism and nationalism. For example the semi-criminal portrayal of the American Black community, the deceiving Russo-American Jew (who sells him a bad car) and the Ukrainian mafia. The latter in particular often refers to the toilet scene when Viktor finishes off in cold blood remarking: "You bitches will answer to me for Sevastopol
Sevastopol
Sevastopol is a city on rights of administrative division of Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 . Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa....

!
" referring to the sensitive topic on the ownership of that city. Ukrainians are also called banderovets
Stepan Bandera
Stepan Andriyovych Bandera was a Ukrainian politician and one of the leaders of Ukrainian national movement in Western Ukraine , who headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists...

by Viktor (e.g. when he arrives at the airport), what does not appear in English subtitles. Albeit, the listed scenes have clear humorous overtones.

In October 2009, the film received mention in a discussion of how the city of Chicago is perceived internationally.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack consists of popular songs from modern Russian
Russian rock
Russian rock refers to rock music made in Russia or in the Russian language. Rock and roll became known in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and quickly broke free from its western roots. According to many music critics, its "golden age" years were the 1980s , when the Soviet underground rock bands...

 and Ukrainian rock artists, such as Splean
Splean
Splean is a popular Russian rock band. They were formed and released their first album in 1994. Since then, they have remained one of the most popular rock bands in Russia and the former Soviet Union. The band's name is derived from "spleen" , and the "ea" spelling in English is a pun on the...

, Bi-2
Bi-2
Bi-2 is a Russian rock band with Belarusian origin, formed in the 80's in Minsk, Belarus. It was one of the most successful with many sales and chart-hits in Russia. Bi-2 was awarded MTV Russian Music Awards for Best Rock Act in 2007.-Pre-history:...

, Zemfira
Zemfira
Zemfira, officially Zemfira Talgatovna Ramazanova ; born 26 August 1976 in Ufa, Bashkortostan) is a Russian rock artist of Bashkir descent...

, Smyslovye Gallyutsinatsii, Chicherina, Okean Elzy
Okean Elzy
Okean Elzy is one of the most successful and popular Ukrainian rock bands. It was formed in 1994 in Lviv, Ukraine. The band's vocalist and frontman is Svyatoslav Vakarchuk. Okean Elzy is the best-loved Ukrainian rock band not only in Ukraine but also in most CIS countries...

 and Nautilus Pompilius
Nautilus Pompilius (band)
Nautilus Pompilius , sometimes nicknamed Nau , was a prominent Soviet/Russian rock band formed by the lead singer Vyacheslav Butusov and bassist Dmitry Umetsky while the two studied in Sverdlovsk Institute of Architecture . The band, with its various incarnations, was active between the years 1983...

. The pop-star Irina Saltykova being one of important characters, there are some her songs in the soundtrack. The latter is partly a reference to the soundtrack of the original "Brother", which consists entirely of Nautilus Pompilius' songs. The soundtrack includes "Lafayette" performed by American band Sleeping For Sunrise.
  1. "Бай-Бай" — Irina Saltykova (O. Molchanov, A. Slavorosov)
  2. "Полковник" — Bi-2 (Shura Bi-2, Lyova Bi-2)
  3. "Счастье" — Bi-2 (Shura Bi-2, Lyova Bi-2)
  4. "Солнечный круг" — Irina Saltykova (O. Molchanov, A. Slavorosov)
  5. "Варвара" — Bi-2 (Shura Bi-2, Lyova Bi-2)
  6. "Огоньки" — Irina Saltykova (P. Andreev)
  7. "Искала" — Zemfira (Zemfira Ramazanova)
  8. "Ту Лу Ла" — Chicherina (Yulia Chicherina)
  9. "Гибралтар" — Vyacheslav Butusov (Vyacheslav Butusov, Dmitry Gunitsky)
  10. "Дорога" — AuktsYon (Leonid Fyodorov, Dmitry Ozeretsky)
  11. "Кавачай" — Okean Elzy (Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, Pavlo Hudimov)
  12. "Вечно молодой" — Smyslovyie gallyutsinatsii (Sergey Bobunets, Oleg Genenfeld)
  13. "Коли тебе нема" — Okean Elzy (Svyatoslav Vakarchuk
    Svyatoslav Vakarchuk
    Svyatoslav Yvanovych Vakarchuk is the lead vocalist of Okean Elzy, the most successful post-Soviet rock band in Ukraine. He is the son of Ivan Vakarchuk, a professor of physics at Lviv University and the former Minister of Education and Science in Ukraine....

    )
  14. "Розовые очки" — Smyslovye gallyutsinatsii (Sergey Bobunets, Oleg Genenfeld)
  15. "Гни свою линию" — Splin (Aleksandr Vasil'ev)
  16. "Секрет" — Agata Kristi (Gleb Samoylov)
  17. "Никогда" — Vadim Samoylov (Vadim Samoylov)
  18. "Город" — Tantsy minus (Vyacheslav Petkun)
  19. "Катманду" — Krematoriy (Armen Grigoryan)
  20. "Иду" — Tantsy minus (Vyacheslav Petkun)
  21. "Земля" — Masha i medvedi (Denis Petukhov, Maria Makarova)
  22. "Lafayette" — Sleeping for Sunrise (Blake J. Zweig, James Konczyk, Jay Ranz)
  23. "Погляд" — La-Mansh (Dmytro Tsyperdiuk)
  24. "Прощальное письмо" — Nautilus Pompilius and Children's Choir led by M. I. Slavkin (Vyacheslav Butusov, Dmitry Umetsky)
  25. "Стюардесса Жанна" — The Metropol Restaurant Orchestra (Vladimir Presnyakov-ml., Ilya Reznik, Aleksandr Starobinets)

Trivia

  • The scene where Danila meets Dmitri Gromov at the hockey practice features several prominent Pittsburgh Penguins
    Pittsburgh Penguins
    The Pittsburgh Penguins are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the first expansion teams during the league's original...

     players. Jaromir Jagr
    Jaromir Jagr
    Jaromír Jágr is a Czech professional ice hockey right winger who plays for the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League . Jágr formerly played with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, and New York Rangers, serving as captain of the Penguins and the Rangers...

     is seen in one shot and Darius Kasparaitis
    Darius Kasparaitis
    Darius Kasparaitis is a retired professional ice hockey defenseman. Known by the nickname Kaspar, he has dual citizenship in both the United States and Russia, and he has played for the Russian national ice hockey team.- Playing career :Kasparaitis left Lithuania for Russia at age 14 after...

    has a small speaking role.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK