In her powerfully immediate Brothers, Suzanne Bier - director of the acclaimed Dogma film Open Hearts (MIFF 02) - has fashioned a taut psychological drama of a splintering family.

Michael and Jannik are brothers who couldn't be less alike. Michael (Ulrich Thomsen) - always his father's favourite - has a successful career in the military and a good relationship with his beautiful wife, Sarah (Connie Nielsen), with whom he has two daughters. His younger brother Jannik (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) has always been a drifter, a wastrel with little sense of responsibility and operating at the edge of the law.

When Michael is sequestered on a UN mission to Afghanistan, his life changes forever. Following an accident, he is reported missing - presumed dead. As the family struggles to cope, grief and necessity bring Sarah and her daughters closer to Jannik. Soon the bond between Sarah and Jannik deepens into love. But as time passes, Michael returns, traumatised and embittered after having been held prisoner in the Afghan mountains. But life has moved on...