Clement Virgo’s Brother is set to have its world debut at the 47th Toronto Film Festival, which begins on September 8 and ends on September 18. Based on a novel by Canadian author David Chaindery, the story follows brothers Francis and Michael from a single-parent family who are struggling to imagine a better life for themselves in their getaway spot of Rogue Valley.
Francis, who hopes of becoming a music artist in the hip-hop scene, tries to keep his brother, who dreams of catching the eye of the smartest girl in school, out of trouble by bringing him along to his friends’ hang out at the barbershop while their Trinidadian mother is working multiple shifts to make ends meet. However, when tragedy strikes and a police crackdown ensues, the boys’ hopes and dreams may be dashed by reality.
The film features the acting talents of Lamar Johnson (The Hate U Give), Aaron Pierre (Underground Railroad), Kiana Madeira (Fear Street), and Marsha Stephanie Blake (When They See Us). Producer of the film includes Virgo as a representative of his production company, Conquering Lion Pictures, and Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences member, Damon D’Oliveira, Aeschylus Poulos, and Hawkeye Pictures’ Sonya Di Rienzo. Executive producers are BRON’s Aaron L. Gilbert and Steven Thibault alongside Laurie May and Noah Segal of Elevation Pictures.
There is no better director to adapt Brother into a film adaptation than Virgo. A prominent Canadian filmmaker, Virgo is known for co-writing and directing Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes into a successful six-part miniseries. The series eventually went on to win several awards, with eleven Canadian Screen Awards being among them. His other work includes HBO’s The Wire, Netflix’s The Get Down, and OWN’s Greenleaf to name a few. Another upcoming production of his includes Black Cyclone, a biopic focusing on the cyclist, Major Taylor.
Brother will definitely be an interesting exploration of poor kids of immigrant parents coming of age in a place outside the United States, where these stories are often set, and will hopefully give a new perspective on the issues of race, masculinity, and poverty. It’s also great that such a story will receive a grand world debut. No doubt Virgo’s visual interpretation of the story will be very much worth checking out.
