Film Details
Director Ntando Brown
Genre Drama
Themes Fatherhood, ambition, masculinity
Logline As Jamal’s day progresses, we see the facade he's created quickly falls apart.
Synopsis
This is a story about a man’s transition from boyhood to fatherhood. The film takes place over the course of one day in Jamal’s world - the interior of a luxury car which doubles as an office, and his haven. We paint a portrait of a well known local hustler, who sells fake watches out of his car. Things seem to be going well for Jamal, he’s parading his faux wealth and flexing his charm, but the cracks start to show when interactions with the mother of his child become more volatile, and an unknown hostile threatens everything he’s worked so hard to earn!.
Directors Statement
My Brudda is an exploration of masculinity and fatherhood. I wanted the majority of the film to be shot inside the car. It’s a tight space in there, but it allowed Jasper (DP) and I to really engage with Jamal’s inner psyche, using tight shots of his eyes and face that allowed our lead to convey emotion without having to say a lot. In this small space we get a sense that Jamal is a bit of a mechanophile and we dramatised the rituals he performs as part of that - shining the car after the car wash, laying out napkins before his lunch - these really allow the audience to get to know Jamal’s quirks…further humanising him.
One of the main driving forces of this piece was perserverance, in a cold London winter, in the face of a toxic relationship with his baby’s mother, in the face of a culture that teaches black men that they are only worth the value of the car they drive… No matter how well Jamal is doing, he has to persevere through this feeling of never quite being good enough. I hope the audience will feel for Jamal, and maybe even recognise him as someone they know.
