brief and to the point.
I just finished watching “My Brother Khosro” and here’s what I thought:
I give it an amiable score of 8/10. Here’s why:
Script: The Story was good. No fuss, no unnecessary scenes, could even use a few more scenes. The dialogue was easy for the average viewer, avoiding Latin medical terms and complex descriptions. Although for me that is not 100% a pro, maybe a bit of scientific talk could make it more serious. The Illness was portrayed fairly good, in some scenes bipolar with a bit of ADHD(!!).
I liked how the characters’ social class was portrayed realistically, maybe a few misses and exaggerations here and there but nothing too over the top. (Not all doctors/dentists wear ties but all of them talk about work over dinner at parties!)
I liked how the Illness was the center of the story but it didn’t prevent it from telling more stories in one. The script tried to stay away from controversy on unnecessary issues such as “what dentists talk about over dinner table” or not making Mitra’s pregnancy another focus of the story or making any sexual clichés for that matter!
Acting: I’m not a critic on acting but from my average-audience-plus-medical-student-plus-film-lover point of view, it was highly above average. The actors seemed to have researched their role and didn’t look clueless, the acting was as good as the script allowed it; had the script been more demanding, the actors could have pulled it off anyway.
Camera: My bar is very high when it comes to virtual aesthetics of a movie and using frames and colors to bring out the full potential of the script, so on that front the movie didn’t impress me but I’d put it somewhere on the average line. The frames were also realistic, maybe they weren’t all that pretty to avoid taking away attention from the story to the frames. Who knows?
Music: there are some nice tunes on there, they’re not very harmonious just like the illness they go up and down according to Khosro’s mood, there’s no constant background music, just when the scene demands it which is a shame because using background music to portray the character’s mood or the feel of the scene is such an easy but effective way to improve a movie.
Location: the locations were few but useful and believable. The house served its purpose and the balconies were nice additions. The practice, the hospital, the street and the road all played their part in the movie but then again their part could be amplified if only the cameraman had decided to take a more pleasant approach!
Conclusion and opinion on the story: Let’s start at the end, I loved it. Let’s move to the middle, the problem is we see mentally ill people as their illness, we refuse to see them as anything else, when they talk we hear the illness talking, when they react we see the illness reacting, we act as they’re an illness with a body rather than a person battling an illness and most of the time highly functioning with it, barely noticing it on daily basis, we alienate them and remind them of it constantly. We should stop. Let’s go back to the beginning, mental illness is an important thing, to see movies made about them in this manner, to show struggles, to show humanity in those affected by it is encouraging. Maybe in the coming decades, even years, we see more movies, TV shows and all sort of art trying to destigmatize mental illness and educate people on how to treat people who have it when they come across.
I appreciate that Khosro’s bipolarity was not should how bipolar disorder is typically shows, super manic or super depressive. He experienced symptoms from all over the spectrum. They used simple yet meaningful incidents such as overspending!
The film gives a lot of think about, a lot of information to the uninformed to process and a lot of emotional and behavioral content to the already informed to devour and reconsider.
The film is now available on DVD and has English subtitles so I suggest you watch it and share your opinion and stories.
