Brother (2023)
Director: Clement Virgo Run Time: 119 min. Release Year: 2023
Starring: Aaron Pierre, Kiana Madeira, Lamar Johnson, Lovell Adams-Gray, Marsha Stephanie Blake
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
About the film:
Winner of a record 12 Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Picture and Best Direction
World Premiere, 2022 Toronto International Film Festival
Clement Virgo returns to the big screen with a staggering adaptation of David Chariandy’s award-winning 2017 novel about two brothers reconciling their dreams and expectations with the violence that confronts them around every corner.
“Clement Virgo’s “Brother” is that wonderful thing every fest goer wants to experience: the unexpected standout… This movie deserves your attention.”
—Brian Tallerico, Roger Ebert
Brother (2023) is the story of Francis and Michael, sons of Caribbean immigrants maturing into young men amidst Toronto’s pulsing 1990’s hip-hop scene. A mystery unfolds when escalating tensions set off a series of events which changes the course of the brothers’ lives forever.
About the filmmaker:
Clement Virgo is one of Canada’s foremost film directors. Born in Jamaica and raised in Toronto, he studied screenwriting at the Canadian Film Centre, and while there wrote and directed his short film Save My Lost N***a Soul (1993), which went on to win Best Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival. He founded the production company Conquering Lion Pictures with producer Damon D’Oliveira. Their groundbreaking first film Rude (1995) was the first Canadian dramatic feature to be written, produced, and directed by an all-black team. The film premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and opened the Perspectives Canada program at TIFF.
Virgo’s other features include TIFF selections The Planet of Junior Brown (1997) and Lie with Me (2005), the Genie Award-winning Love Come Down (2000), and Berlin selection Poor Boy’s Game (2008). His television work includes directing episodes of HBO’s The Wire, Fox’s Empire, the OWN network drama series Greenleaf, and co-creating and co-writing the 2015 miniseries The Book of Negroes.
His first theatrical feature since 2007, Brother (2023), premiered at TIFF and won a record-breaking 12 Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Picture and Best Direction.
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