Private Project

The Brother

Pushed by his sister, a brother returns to his hometown after a long absence to exact revenge.

  • Younes Bouab
    Director
  • Younes Bouab
    Writer
  • Younes Bouab
    Producer
  • Younes Bouab
    Key Cast
  • Nisrine Adam
    Key Cast
    "The Sister"
  • Soumaya Akaaboune
    Key Cast
    "The Mother"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Le Frère
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes 2 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 1, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Morocco
  • Country of Filming:
    Morocco
  • Language:
    Arabic, French
  • Shooting Format:
    A7III
  • Aspect Ratio:
    3:2
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Younes Bouab

Younes Bouab was born in 1979 in Salé, Morocco, to a Moroccan father and a French mother. He discovered theater in high school in Rabat. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne where he obtained two masters degrees in philosophy: one on the work of Averroes and the other on the Theory of justice of John Rawls. He returned to the stage during his last years in Paris and took an acting course at Studio Pygmalion. Once back in Morocco, he worked as a scriptwriter before trying his luck in front of the camera. He has acted in various Moroccan productions selected in international festivals—Zero (Dubai IFF), Achoura (Sitges, Brussels), Une Affaire Urgente (Busan), Razzia (TIFF), The Unknown Saint (Cannes Critics’ Week), Jbel Moussa (Festival Vues d’Afrique)—as well as in international productions—Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert, Contrafigura (Venice), The Messiah, French Exit, Rebel (Cannes Midnight screenings, Red Sea) and Rupert Wyatt’s Desert Warrior. Bouab has also directed a short film, Le Frère, and is working on his first feature film, Ali, a project selected at the Atlas Workshops 2022 in Marrakech and at the Pitch Premières Oeuvres in Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montréal 2023.

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Director Statement

The Brother is the story of a brother who will achieve revenge with the help of his sister. The film is freely adapted from the myth of Orestes (and Electra). It's a film made within the spirit of Dogma 95, without lighting, with a reduced team. I explore through the mixture of genres (suspense, horror, experimental) some of the deepest conflicts of a human being, wherever he comes from, such as filiation, revenge, the relationship to the mother, to the family...

I want to propose a cinema form the Maghreb that is not social drama, but which nevertheless wants to be political and deals with the affirmation of the individual beyond the ancestral family heritage.