Synopsis
A Tunisian father is shaken when his son returns from fighting in Syria with a mysterious new wife.
Accolades
• Oscar nominee: Best Live Action Short
• Best Canadian Film, Toronto
• Short of the Week Short Award winner
• Vimeo Staff Pick Best of the Year
"One of the most acclaimed shorts of recent memory."
Short of the Week
Meryam Joobeur | Tunisia | 2018 | 25m
Did you know?
If the casting feels uncannily good, it’s because Malek, Chaker and Rayene are brothers in real life.
Director Meryam Joobeur met Malek and Chaker by chance on a road trip. “I spotted two brothers leading a flock of sheep across a lush green hillside. The contrast of their unique, freckled faces against the green landscape immediately struck me. So I stopped the car to see if I could take their photograph,” she told Vimeo.
A year later, she went searching for the brothers to see if she could cast them in her short film. “Excitement and nerves built as I landed on their doorstep with the script for Brotherhood in hand. I had also written a role for a third, much younger brother (who I thought I would have to cast). But to my surprise, the first person to emerge from the house was their youngest brother, Rayene, with the same red hair and freckles... At first, they were baffled by my request, but I never doubted my instinct that there was something special about them.”
She has since expanded the story into a feature, Who Do I Belong To?, which competed for the Golden Bear in Berlin.
Want to watch & discuss with a friend?