Brotherhood

Is it possible to construct a credible gay romantic movie telling a tale of two young members of a National Socialist party branch experiencing same-sex attraction for each other? In 2009, Nicolo Donato, a Danish photographer and video/short film director, almost achieved the cinematic mission impossible with Brotherhood (Broderskab).

"Almost", because only devout romantics could believe that a long-time neo-Nazi skinhead with a strongly tattooed body might suddenly acknowledge his repressed tendency after a few beers, a skinny dip and a hot shower with his new slightly less repressed flatmate. It might be called the Brokeback Mountain syndrome, in which two lonely randy young men play games and find out they're serious.

As with Ang Lee's almost credible movie, much depends on the acting prowess of the two lead men. Donato's Danes are very believable even though their contradictory characters are not. Voluntarily, they do and say things in public that are both gratuitously evil or prejudiced, far from the level of human awareness they show each other. They take some anti-Muslim actions that the narrative doesn't show to be essential plot or character developments in terms of their personal standing or safety within the neo-Nazi brotherhood.

Three minor neo-Nazi characters are more credibly nuanced: a drug addict who betrays his older brother, a fat local party leader with charisma and cunning, and a patrician national party leader with political skills. At the end of the movie, the plot for its sequel was heavily signposted. It will probably be equally surprising: this director is worth watching.