A super-powered outing from the London Film Festival...

"A thoroughly enjoyable feel-good family flick for trainee comic book sci-fi fans"

Danish film Super Brother explores what could happen if “wishing upon a star” actually worked. Anton is tired of being responsible for his autistic big brother Buller and one night looks up to the sky desperately imploring: “I call upon the stars and ask my big brother to be a normal ordinary brother.”

Buller is freaked out by the noise of traffic and car headlights, having to be helped across the road by Anton. He attends a special school, drawing pictures for his brother that, combined, make up an image of a giant meteorite. Living beneath a flight path, he's regularly found star-gazing sitting on the roof and has his own catchphrase: “I don't know inside my head.”

When something explodes in the sky and plummets to earth, Anton finds a steaming mound in a field during a school trip the next day. Returning to the scene he takes the meteorite home and discovers a gun-shaped object inside, glowing translucent butterflies and a hologram of a toy engineer from a planet called “Buiber Belt” that projects onto the wall, giving a lecture about the “toy” and explaining how children from other planets can benefit from this invention.

The brothers agree to keep their discovery a secret but once Anton fires the laser gun at Buller their discovery becomes harder to conceal. Buller momentarily glows blue but most of the changes are to his personality: he suddenly starts goofing around, boasting “You've got the big brother you always wanted”; he's able to correct his brother's homework and protect him from bullies; he removes the “hippy” flagpole outside their house; he can shunt trucks unassisted, fly and cross the road alone. Initially delighted, Anton starts to miss the old Buller when he develops an attitude and starts listening to rock music, asking questions and saying things like “What's up shit face?”

Their train conductor mother, Anja has tried everything to get Buller help, including alternative therapy. Believing in miracles, she desperately wants an “ordinary family” and is happy to blame Buller's transformation on a miracle tea Tibetan monks drink called Qeng Mao Pai, when a newly-confident Buller starts calling her “toots”. Unfortunately after the gun gets wet, Buller and Anton realise they only have 36 hours before life as they knew it returns to normal.

With plenty of nods to sci-fi and superhero flicks, Super Brother isn't just a heart-warming family drama. Shots of another galaxy and planet with crops growing and references to Buller being from another planet tie in nicely with the magical meteorite. The opening title is written in that distinctive Superman font and Buller's fancy dress costume resembles Clark Kent's. Various lines from the film are Spiderman or Star Trek references - with an “STC” comes “great power, comes great responsibility” and “May the force be with you, brother”.

Farcical moments, cutesy characters and amusing lines like “A big brother should pack a mean punch” add to the humour. Anton's admirer, Agnes, is perhaps the funniest character, announcing she's entered “pre-puberty” and calling Anton an “unromantic bonehead”. Watching these two children getting together is funny in itself without the added ridiculous romantic dance montage between Agnes and Anton in fancy dress to “You going to be my baby” at her two-guest fancy dress party.

Super Brother is a thoroughly enjoyable feel-good family flick for trainee comic book sci-fi fans. Focusing on brotherly bonding between the two fantastic leads, the message of Super Brother seems to be that “life is short and we have to spoil ourselves”.

Director: Birger Larsen
Writer: Ake Sandgren
Country: Denmark
Running Time: 89 mins
Starring: Lucas Odin Clorius, Victor Kruse Palshøj, Anette Støvelbk

No release date information is available at this time.

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR SITE, AT NO COST WITH ONE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK 'LIKE' BUTTON BELOW:

If you're interested in writing for Shadowlocked (disc and screening reviews, etc, or just getting some extra coverage for your extraordinary writing talent, get in touch with us.