The Half Brother

Description

Based on the internationally acclaimed and best-selling novel by Lars Saabye Christensen, The Half Brother is an evocative family saga revolving around the life of un-produced screenwriter Barnum Nilsen. On V-Day, May 1945, as a continent emerges from war, Barnum'’s mother Vera is raped in her attic in Oslo by an unknown man, leading to the birth of Barnum’'s half brother, Fred. When Barnum is born five years later, to the man that Vera has since met and married, the Nilsen family, like Europe, is already splitting in two. Growing up together during the Cold War – Barnum with his father, Fred searching for his – the half brothers become estranged. Unspoken family secrets eventually bring tensions to a head and Fred vanishes. At a film festival in Berlin in 1990, as the Wall is still coming down, Barnum finds startling evidence that his half brother is still alive and sets off on an urgent quest to find him. Finally, as the true identity of Fred’'s father comes to light, the two half brothers may once again be reunited. More than the hypnotic story of one splintered family, The Half Brother offers a haunting parable of 20th century Europe.