Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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“Stranger, Brother” Film Details
Runtime: 15 Minutes
Release Date: January 30, 2025
Initially Available On/Via: Film Festival – Sundance Film Festival
Advisory Film Rating: Not Rated
Genre(s): Drama, Young Adult, LGBT+
Distributor(s): Sundance Film Festival
Director(s): Annelise Hickey
Writer(s): Annelise Hickey
Summary
Age gaps are hard enough to navigate between siblings, but add in a very different relationship to their shared parent and, for Adam, the fact he is part of the LGBTQIA+ community, which his little brother Mose hasn’t had a lot of experience with? It makes Mose’s sudden showing up awkward, but a chance for not only healing but for a sibling relationship to evolve.
Character Descriptions
Adam (Tiaki Teremoana)
Mose (Samson Uili)
Review
Highlight(s)
- A Good Taste Of What Could Be Done [82/100]
Overall
Our Rating (82/100): Positive (Worth Seeing)
Like the majority of shorts, Stranger, Brother is just a taste, and what we have here is what we need when it comes to diversity. From people of color part of the LGBTQIA+ community, complex relationships between friends and family, and the sense that, similar to Mutt, as complicated as adult relationships can be, relationships to children, even with a blank slate, can be just as hard?
What we get with Stranger, Brother is a soft reset for Adam in which, as you watch him try to discard the blueprint of what blood family is like, as he tries to bond with Mose, you get a sense of healing. Maybe not the kind he wanted, in the way he wanted, but through Mose, it appears the first steps may actually be taken.
Content Information
- Dialog: Cursing
- Violence: None
- Sexual Content: None
- Miscellaneous: Drug Use, Smoking
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