The Blood of My Brother

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The Blood of My Brother

2005

1h 24m

Documentary

War

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

70%

Tomatometer

20 Reviews

59%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

Looking at the Iraq War from the Iraqi point of view, this documentary tells the story of Ibrahim, a teenage boy whose brother is killed by American forces while guarding a mosque. Ibrahim would like to join in with the anti-American rebellion and avenge his brother's death, but now that he is the eldest male sibling in his family, he must put aside his desire for revenge in order to run his brother's fledgling photography shop and provide for his family.

Critics Consensus

The Blood of My Brother is an insightful - if at times unfocused - documentary about the war in Iraq told from the locals' point of view.

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Janice Page

Boston Globe

Berends's documentary works for the most part because it has a fresh point of view and worthwhile things to say about the individual value of overlooked masses in a war zone.

Rated: 3/4

Aug 12, 2006

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Bill Stamets

Chicago Sun-Times

Imparts a you-are-there atmosphere that's increasingly scarce as Western journalists retreat.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 7, 2006

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Lou Lumenick

New York Post

Despite some remarkable unembedded footage, Andrew Berends' is yet another disappointingly superficial, unfocused and one-sided documentary on the conflict in Iraq.

Rated: 2/4

Jun 30, 2006

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Christopher Campbell

Cinematical

The action is so consciously real that at one point when a bullet could be seen coming towards one side of the camera I flinched to the other side of my seat.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 18, 2007

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Eric Monder

Film Journal International

A needed corrective to superficially pro-American news reports and documentaries from the reactionary right.

Mar 1, 2007

Full Review

Bill Gallo

L.A. Weekly

[The filmmakers'] access is far broader than any TV network's, and in the end, they transcended the body counts and bland abstractions that characterize most Western reporting on the war.

Jul 27, 2006

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Audience Member

This is a startling documentary from Iraq, depicting the suffering of Iraqi citizens. It manages to coherently explain the reasons for which these young men feel the need to join the resistance movement against the American occupation. Very interesting, and heartbreaking.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

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Audience Member

(*** 1/2): [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img]

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

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Audience Member

we need to see what's goin' on over there and how people suffer from the war thing like losing (family) members

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/18/23

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Audience Member

Certainly impactful at times. But just seemed a bit too basic in its delivery, and also misleading. See all the deleted scenes to see what was really going on in the family. It was obviously a willful decision to ignore the fact that this Iraqi young guy was letting his family down by hitting the race tracks and playing video games as opposed to staying at his shop to make money to feed the family. Instead, the director chose to make it appear as if the evil American occupancy just wrecked this family's life (not negating the fact that it is the truth) and nothing could be done to stop it. It would have been much more interesting to see the full depth of what was really going on. Shame on the director for taking such an amateur angle on things. It's easy to make things look bad when you want it to, but sometimes it's not easy to tell the truth.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

more like a documentary...barely held my attention...nice idea though.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

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Audience Member

A wonderful portrayal of the human cost of war...Sad and poignant. A must see.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

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Andrew Berends

Director

Andrew Berends

Producer

Andrew Berends

Cinematographer

Aaron Soffin

Film Editing

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Synopsis

Looking at the Iraq War from the Iraqi point of view, this documentary tells the story of Ibrahim, a teenage boy whose brother is killed by American forces while guarding a mosque. Ibrahim would like to join in with the anti-American rebellion and avenge his brother's death, but now that he is the eldest male sibling in his family, he must put aside his desire for revenge in order to run his brother's fledgling photography shop and provide for his family.

Director: Andrew Berends
Producer: Andrew Berends
Production Co: Storyteller Productions
Genre: Documentary, War
Original Language: Arabic
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Jun 30, 2006
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 25, 2018
Runtime: 1h 24m