Brother

Russia's top box office hit two years ago, this gritty gangster drama is set on the mean streets of St. Petersburg, which seem to be overrun by punks and rival extortion gangs. Sergei Bodrov, Jr. (son of the director of Prisoner of the Mountains) stars as Danila, a play-it-cool powderkeg just out of the army and in town at his mother's urging to visit his older brother, Viktor. Hardly, the respectable citizen their mother imagines him to be, Viktor is a low-level hitman for the Russian mafia and recruits Danila into the family business. The deadpan Danila, always plugged into his precious Walkman, proves to be a budding Little Caesar-ski. Like De Niro's Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, he is an avenger, coming to the aid of put-upon merchants at an outdoor market and even a bus conductor being hassled by two lugs. Highly recommended. (K. Lee Benson)[DVD Review—Feb. 6, 2007—Kino, 96 min., in Russian w/English subtitles, not rated, $24.95—Making its first appearance on DVD, 1997's Brother sports a nice transfer, with DVD extras limited to a photo gallery. Bottom line: a small extras package for a fine Russian gangster flick.]