Chechens In Brother

In the films Brother, directed by Aleksei Balabanov and Bodrov’s Prisoner of the Mountains, there are certain elements that explore the encounters between Russia and cultural “others.” In this particular case, Chechens. The portrayals of the Chechen at the market and the encounter on the bus in Brother, and the Chechen villagers in Prisoner of the Mountains, are shaped by the discourses of war and Orientalism. Drum Roll and Brother depict Russia's encounter with Western culture, and how individual characters negotiate their relationships with western Europeans, with capitalism, and with western products.

Danila, the main character and hero in Brother, has just returned from the war with Chechens, obviously still harboring resentment towards

In the beginning Chechnya is portrayed as foreign through the eyes of these Russian soldiers. The Russians characterized the Chechens as a senseless but dangerous group of people. They never correctly identified them, instead they would call them disrespectful names like “bastards” or “bandits”. “Chechen culture is depicted in this film as run down, dirty and poor with the soundtrack surrounding them being slightly “demeaning”. The Russian’s are depicted as well-developed and built-up with cobblestone streets and buildings. The soundtrack that surrounds the Russian culture is “mighty” and paints them in a good light.”(Michelle Nyugen, 9/14/15) But throughout the film Bodrov makes the characters more interactive with each other trying to comprehend and understands the others values and culture differences. The Russian prisoners discover in their confrontation with the East that they are not that different from each other, they are humans too and should be treated as such. In the end the movie showed that they needed to rely on one another to live in complete

Danila shows blind aggression and hatred towards the West culture and its people. One scene in particular he was at a party with Kat, who absolutely adores American music and lifestyle. He complains about the music and questions what it means. Kat replies with, “Who cares? They sing like Gods.” Later Danila approaches a man he assumes was American and essentially curses him out, ranting about how western culture is garbage. “Ideologically, the film abounds in racial slur and nationalistic one-liners, and tramples on all traditional values. Balabanov declared that his interpretation of the moral standard responded to the demand of the younger generation (…) absolutely accurate in sociological terms.” (Lawton