The family man Major Michael Lundberg (Ulrich Thomsen) is happily married with his beloved Sarah (Connie Nielsen) and adores his two daughters Natalia (Sarah Juel Werner) and Camilla (Rebecca Løgstrup Soltau). His younger brother Jannik (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) has just left prison on probation for bank robbery and has issues with his father Henning (Bent Mejding). Michael invites Jannik to have dinner at home with their family. When Michael arrives in Afghanistan, his helicopter crashes and he is considered missing in action. However, he is captured and sent to a camp where he meets the radar technician Niels Peter (Paw Henriksen). After a long period imprisoned, Micahel is forced to kill Niels with a bar to survive. Meanwhile Jannick comforts Sarah and the children and he becomes close to Michael's family. When Michael is rescued, he comes back home emotionally detached and paranoid. Further, he is convinced that Sarah and Jannik have slept together during his absence. When the envious Natalia lies during the birthday dinner party of her sister telling that her mother and Jannik had shagged to upset her father, the disturbed Michael triggers an intense paranoia jeopardizing his family.

"Brødre" is a powerful and realistic drama about lives destroyed by war. This film is extremely well-acted, with an adequate cast that gives credibility to the plot led by the gorgeous and excellent Connie Nielsen. The sensitive director Susanne Bier of "Efter Brylluppet" makes another extraordinary movie based on the family dynamics. Jim Sheridan remade this film in 2009, but in a shallow teen "americanization" version. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Brothers"

Susanne Bier's "Brothers" is a gripping account of the relationship between two brothers. Ms. Bier, a distinguished director, presents in this new venture a psychological study in the mind of one man who has been scarred by events beyond his control. The screen play by Ms. Bier and Andreas Thomas Jensen is one of the most powerful things that have come out from the Danish cinema.

If you haven't seen the film, please stop reading here.

At the beginning of the movie, we are shown Michael who is picking up a prisoner from a jail. It turns out that the released man is none other than Jannik, his own brother. It's clear, at the outset, these two men are as different as oil and vinegar. They quarrel along the way and Jannik gets out and walks into a field to get away from his brother.

Michael, a major in the army, is for all we see, happily married. He is preparing to go to Afghanistan with his unit. His pretty wife, Sarah, and his two young daughters are going to be left on their own, but everything seems to be under control.

When Michael's helicopter is shot from the sky by enemy fire, he is reported as dead, something that affects Sarah deeply. Jannik, the distant brother in law, suddenly gravitates toward Sarah and her children. Sarah, in her grief over her loss, becomes closer to this man.

Michael, on the other hand, hasn't died. We see him as he is taken to an enemy camp where he is seen sharing a cell with another Danish soldier. There's hardly any contact between captors and prisoners. The two men bond, but the other man is seen weakening because of he senses they will be killed. Death arrives, in a devastating sequence that has to be one of the most heart wrenching thing in a film in recent memory.

As the camp is liberated, Michael is repatriated. Sarah knows something has happened to her husband, who never talks about the tragedy at the camp. What's more, one watches in horror as Michael begins to spiral out of control. His guilt finally explodes in a rage, even Jannik, can stop. Michael, in his state, suspects about his own wife's infidelity with his brother. He accuses her of betrayal, something his older daughter, Natalia, seems to be convinced happened between her mother and uncle. Michael, being so tormented, breaks down and begins trashing the house. Jannik comes to help and the brothers have an almost fatal confrontation. At the end we watch as Sarah visits Michael in jail and how he breaks down and tell her the horrible secret he has been hiding all along.

Ulrich Thomsen is the best thing in the film! Mr. Thomsen's performance is one of the most complex we have watched in a while. Mr. Thomsen makes Michael come alive in front of our eyes. Connie Nielsen, an actress that has worked extensively in the American cinema makes also quite an impression with her portrayal of Sarah, the wife that has to deal with the false death of her husband, only to find out he is alive. The other good performance is by Nikolaj Lil Kaas, who plays Jannik, the problem brother. All the supporting players make a contribution to the film.

Ms. Bier shows she can hold her own against much more accomplished directors.

A kind of prune Danish about a happily married couple, Michael and Sarah and their two doll-like daughters, and Michael's reckless and irresponsible younger brother Jannik. Michael, a major in the army, is sent to Afghanistan where his helicopter is shot down, and he's thrown into a prison cell with a Danish comrade. Beaten, and with a gun at his head, Michael is forced to batter to death his cell mate and friend.

Meanwhile, back home, having been informed mistakenly that Michael was dead, Sarah and Jannik come to respect one another and even to be attracted to one another, although nothing goes beyond a tentative but meaningful kiss.

Michael is rescued and returned to his home. But, unable to face his own guilt, he claims never to have seen any other prisoners, and he tells his family nothing about his part in the murder, which, although bloodless, is an especially brutal scene. He's not the guy who left home. He partly blames his family for the killing because it was of them that he was thinking when he bashed his friend's head in. He's irritable, suspicious of Jannik and Sarah, bullies the two kids, strikes his wife, and finally is jailed for smashing his own home. Sarah visits him and orders him to tell of his experiences or she will leave him for good. He tells her, and presumably Michael recovers and the family remains intact. I say "presumably" because this isn't a simple movie with simple answers to questions with labyrinthine implications. The film doesn't endorse the cliché of "getting it off your chest" and putting it behind you. It's not that dumb.

That, basically, is the story. It's a rather long movie considering that it isn't very dense with incident. I kept waiting for boredom to set in but it didn't happen. For one thing, Connie Nielson as Sarah is very attractive. For another, the performances all around were outstanding. Michael, in particular, embodies the sort of compulsive military type who believes that everything should be in order, that individuals should take responsibility for what they do, and that talking solves nothing. John Wayne would have approved. Then, too, I was curious to see just how far this post-traumatic stress would drive Michael. Would he really kill his family? We know he's capable of the most tempestuous emotions, despite his outer reserve, because we have seen him scream with horror when a cocked pistol is pressed against his forehead.

Finally, it gradually came to me that this is a story about people who fought terrorism and are not Americans, although the invasion of Afghanistan and the toppling of the Taliban was a response to the attacks of 9/11. In many Europen cities on September 12th, 2001, major newspapers ran headlines like, "Today We Are All Americans." And some of those nations went to war with us and some of their soldiers died doing it. It has been not quite six years since those horrible initial events. And who would march beside us today? Where are OUR brothers now? What happened? It's a sobering and enlightening movie.