Alexander Zolotukhin Flies High in Berlinale Encounters Premiere ‘Brother’

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias Russian director Alexander Zolotukhin has sky-high ambitions for “Brother in Every Inch,” which has its world premiere Feb.

13 in the Berlin Film Festival’s competitive Encounters section.Zolotukhin’s sophomore feature is the story of twin brothers whose inseparable bond complicates their efforts to fulfill their shared dream of becoming air force pilots.

The film is produced by Andrey Sigle and Mary Nazari for Proline Film. Paris-based Loco Films is repping the pic internationally.The son of an air force pilot, Zolotukhin was granted rare access to a Russian military base to shoot “Brother in Every Inch,” filming real-life fighter planes and casting pilots and cadets as extras to bring a documentary-style verité to his film.

Pic was lensed by veteran Russian cinematographer Andrey Naydenov, who worked as DP on Andrei Konchalovsky’s Venice prize-winner “Dear Comrades!” Naydenov collaborated with military engineers to construct special camera cases that would allow him to capture the film’s high-octane flight scenes.“I wanted to show the process of being a pilot as realistically as possible,” says Zolotukhin, whose feature debut, “A Russian Youth,” bowed in the Berlinale’s Forum strand in 2019.Zolotukhin is a graduate of the directing workshop founded by Alexander Sokurov (“Russian Ark”), which has produced acclaimed, up-and-coming filmmakers including Cannes Un Certain Regard prize winners Kantemir Balagov (“Beanpole”) and Kira Kovalenko (“Unclenching the Fists”).