Oliver Twist meets “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” in Ferit Karahan’s sophomore feature, “Brother’s Keeper.” Set in a snowbound boarding school on the eastern edges of Turkey, the film tells the story of a boy desperate to get help for his sick friend yet stymied at every turn by bullying teachers and corrupt administrators. While Karahan (“The Fall From Heaven”) builds the narrative in a resolutely effective manner, ensuring the child’s increasing desperation gets under the audience’s skin, the scenario’s predictability and the stereotyped depiction of the adults impede emotional involvement.
Institutional coldness typifies everything about this large school situated in a neglected part of the country, staffed by cruel instructors perpetuating an age-old cycle of abuse. Showers are allowed only once a week, the hot water (when there is hot water) a welcome relief from the frigid climate and the broken heating pipes. But when some boys get unruly,...
Institutional coldness typifies everything about this large school situated in a neglected part of the country, staffed by cruel instructors perpetuating an age-old cycle of abuse. Showers are allowed only once a week, the hot water (when there is hot water) a welcome relief from the frigid climate and the broken heating pipes. But when some boys get unruly,...
- 3/18/2021
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
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