Interview: Ryan Bonder, Director Of The Brother

13th September 2016

The Brother will surprise you. As the name suggests it deals with fraternal issues encompassed in a crime thriller. It feels European and is mercifully free of cliches! I was lucky enough to interview the director, Ryan Bonder, of The Brother ahead of its UK release this Friday, 16 September. about the film, how he got such an awesome cast and what we can expect next.

How did this project come about?

I guess I’m interested in memory and the past and how it defines us. I also really like the French take of crime films, The Beat that my Heart Skipped etc…. I had been working on a very complicated meta script which completely cooked my brain and want to write something more character driven. I’m not sure how the idea landed, but I run a lot and when I run, ideas come and some times they stick. Usually, I work through the entire outline in my head while running. It must have been over a week but I felt I work it out. I then push it aside for a week. Usually by doing other work and when I come back to it, if it still excites me, I start writing. In the case, It burned very quickly and I wrote it in 10 days.

I loved this line in the film “the less you know the better you’ll sleep” and come the end of the film we still know very little about Adam and the other characters. It works. Was this always the intention or did this happen during the post-editing process?

A tricky question and I suppose in a way illustrates my fascination with memory. What was intended and what actually happened is very difficult to say at this point. However, it was my intention to create characters where the audience would have to invest or project there own notion of who they “are” on them. When you write, you hope you give lines to characters which hopefully have a deeper subtext, but a lot of that comes from my subconscious. When you try to be clever, you usually end up falling flat.

You managed to get a great cast of actors. You’ve worked with the actor who played Eli before – was he the first on board and how did you attract Anthony Head?

I did think of Jed early on as we have worked together previously… so I know he’s a great actor. He’s also a very accomplished pianist so it was very easy to write it for him. When we were casting for JACK, and Antony’s name came up, and it was one of those, “Of course, he’d be perfect”. He’s a great actor and incredibly versatile. We sent him the script. He responded to it. We had long conversation about the character and that was it. He came on board.

There are lots of themes running through the film – dementia, love and a very slick retelling of Cain and Abel. What for you is the most important theme?

How memory and our past inform our identity and how they are fluid and ever changing.

The film has a great tempo making the violence when it does happen shocking, extreme and jolts the viewer. Did you ever think the violence was too graphic?

I think we all have different levels of tolerance. It was my intention to jolt the viewer but I don’t view the violence as too graphic in comparison to a lot of other films. Perhaps because it does fly out unexpectedly, it’s feels more extreme…but no, I don’t feel it’s to graphic.

On the subject of violence in the film – the sound editing was very important. Did you agonise over it getting it just right?

I worked with Miguel Nunes on the sound. He’s great. We talked a lot about the feeling of the sound and then I let him go at it. For me, I hire people who I think are interesting and talented… we talk about what it should feel like, some times we talked in terms of colour or tones… and then I let him go it and he came up with a fantastic sounding film. I’d sit in and tweak a bit, but really it’s about collaboration.

The ending of The Brother was interesting. Was that the original ending?

Yes it was. We didn’t deviate a whole lot for the original structure of the script.

It’s been seven years since you wrote and directed your last film Daydrift. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another 7 years – what’s next for you?

You and me both. I am currently casting my next project BLACK FLAG which is the story of a father who travels to Syria to convince his recently converted son to leave ISIS and return home. I hope to be shooting that in early 2017. I also have a TV series which I am developing that could go in 2017 as well.

The Brother opens in cinemas across the UK on Friday 16 September.

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