Weekly Film Analysis: Brotherhood 2016

‘First, there was Kidulthood, then Adulthood, and now comes Noel Clarke's last instalment: Brotherhood. With Sam facing up to the new world, he realizes it also comes with new problems and new challenges that he must face that he knows, will require old friends to help him survive new dangers.’

Brotherhood is a British Drama and the themes that run throughout this film is exploitation, money, revenge, greed, crime, family, betrayal, love and loss. This film was made in 2016, made a spinoff of the film Adulthood. This was written and directed by Noel Clarke who also starred as the male protagonist of this film, cinematography by Aaron Reid and music by Tom Linden. The location of the film was set in United Kingdom. This was distributed by Lionsgate (UK)and was screened at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

Story was based on gang violence, knowing the storyline of Adulthood, Sam (protagonist) realises that his remorseful past catches up to him, involving his family as his weakness to get into the old lifestyle he had. In the opening scene, shows Sam matured and not like how he was presented in Adulthood. This scene uses flashback scenes from Adulthood to give a sort of recap to the audience, in order for them to link the stories together. The last flash back scene is of Sam with blood dripping down his face, which suggests that the darkness around him connotes that the ‘old sam’ has died and that he has a new beginning. The scene cuts off saying ’10 years later’ showing the audience a new time zone and a new generation of teenagers involved in this lifestyle, which potentially foreshadows already that his past is catching up to him. The next scene shows people at the ages around 18-24 at a gig dancing, contrasting performance of urban rappers, hip hop jazz music being played.  As the performance goes on, a young boy shoots the main star, also known as Sam’s brother and leaves a note saying ‘for Sam Pell’.

Already, in six minutes we uncover a lot about Sam. Wide shots of the estate and trains going past gives the audience an insight of where Sam and his family live, which links to the reality of crime and social realism. It then shows Sam travelling to different places as a cleaner, kitchen worker, etc. showing that he is working hard in the right way.  A wide shot view shows Sam looking into the mirror at Gym; he slaps the fat on his belly as humorous encounter, showing his new life is what he’s happy with. Mis en scene is used to show a family portrait of his wife and children, signifying why he is working hard and his maturity have developed as he is a father.  His wife states that he is very involved with his work and isn’t physically there for his children and wants to be surprised at a brunch they go to in the morning. Towards the end of the film when he goes through all his loss, challenges and fights, he splits the money with his brother, friend from past, and his wife, he goes to see her at the morning brunch they go to, which signified that he’s finally here for his children and wasn’t there before as he was protecting them against his past.