FRATRICIDE

Through its careful accumulation of details and the rough truths of its handheld camera movements, FRATRICIDE creates a poetic dimension to balance and illuminate its dire narrative. Xewat Gectan, as Ibo, is heartbreaking in a way that American child actors never manager to be. Rather than confront racial intolerance on the glib level of an American treatment such as CRASH, it cuts straight into the heart, with crisp direction and a profoundly human eloquence.” – Steve Dollar, The New York Sun“In its particulars – the director’s feel for character and space, as well as the sterling, naturalistic performances – it’s an absorbing drama about cultural alienation that sheds light on an underclass unfamiliar to most audiences.”–
New York Magazine

A cycle of both vengeance and redemption is what Yilmaz Arslan’s film Fratricide offers anyone willing to sit down and watch. Recipient of the Locarno Film Festival’s Silver Leopard award, the film examines both the cultural isolation and tribal feuding experienced by immigrants attempting to make their way in Western Europe. Released by Koch Lorber Films, Fratricide is yet another examination of Europe’s new melting pot and the inner strife that may result accordingly.
The film follows the journey of two young Kurds attempting to survive and hopefully make their fortune in modern Germany. Azad (Erdal Celik) is Kurdish teenager who at the film’s beginning departs from his rural home in order to make his living in Germany; his journey paid for by his older brother who works as a pimp. Upon arrival in his new environment, Azad is taken in by a local youth hostel ran by local Kurdish community leaders. The hostel essentially acts as an oasis for new immigrants trying to adjust to the rather unwelcome social environment the city presents. While staying at the hostel and earning a living as a barber, Azad meets Ibo (Xevat Gectan), a young Kurdish boy whose parents were murdered in their home country.
A fast friendship soon develops between the pair as Azad looks after Ibo like a younger brother, in stark contrast to the combative relationship he has with his own older brother. Fate rears its cruel neck in however when one night the pair run into two Turkish brothers on a commuter train. After getting into a heated argument, Azad and Ibo escape but are not forgotten by the pair. Coincidentally, one of the brothers Ahmet (Oral Uyan) stumbles upon the pair again one day. A scuffle breaks out and before anyone has a chance to stop it, a murder is committed. From that point onward, the story spirals uncontrollably into a vortex of revenge and despair.
Both sides swear vengeance against the other and retribution naturally ensues, driven not only by loss but ancient tribal tensions as well. In the end, everyone loses and no one is left unscathed. While there is a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel, it is bittersweet at best. Like Head-On, Fratricide exists within the new Europe, a contentious melting point of diverse cultures stemming from the recent waves of immigration from the Middle East and Africa. While America has often contended with its multicultural existence, it is nowhere near as difficult as in Western Europe where centuries-old homogenous cultures now find themselves being forced to adapt outside influence.
The tension and distaste that the native societies bring upon the immigrants creates the isolated environment that only fuels further strife. In their own way, Azad and Ibo are pursuing the American Dream in trying to reinvent themselves in a new land and strike out for their own fortune. However, they also contend with taking care of their families back home financially, which the film makes a rather acidic point about. Whether it is earned working as a butcher or prostitute, money is still money and for that reason alone the families at home nor the Europeans who exploit them have no qualms over how they earn it. Despite the inflicted cruelty, Fratricide still maintains a rather innocent, humanistic core in the relationship between Azad and Ibo. Their bond is forged in the harshest of times and the love they feel for one another is palpable and touching. It only shows that no matter how horrible things can get, love is still capable of beating the most poisonous hatred.