"Die schwarzen Brüder" / "The Black Brothers" does not refer to the boys' skin colors, but this is a movie about a bunch of young chimney sweeps. It is another piece of German children literature brought to the screen and, almost 25 years after his Academy Award win, director Xavier Koller's newest project.
The story is summarized quickly: We see a woman getting injured and her husband has to sell their boy for a little while, so he can afford treatment for his wife. The kid is taken by another man for a whole year and asked to clean chimneys. After that, we see all the common themes from kids movies. There's others with the same fate. There is another gang who are the main rivals aside from the man who bought him and there's a girl who is the love interest to the central character, the sister of somebody from the other gang. Hello Romeo and Juliet. A kind-hearted priest helps the boys where he can.
The change in mind of the other gang after they did get beaten up doesn't seem really credible, and, all in all, it's just too stereotypical and brings nothing really new to the genre. I like good children's films, but this one just feels like there's no real heart in it and Moritz Bleibtreu's character is also more of a caricature than a scary villain. None of the many child actors is really outstanding either. There's many better German children's movies out there. Skip this one.
The story is summarized quickly: We see a woman getting injured and her husband has to sell their boy for a little while, so he can afford treatment for his wife. The kid is taken by another man for a whole year and asked to clean chimneys. After that, we see all the common themes from kids movies. There's others with the same fate. There is another gang who are the main rivals aside from the man who bought him and there's a girl who is the love interest to the central character, the sister of somebody from the other gang. Hello Romeo and Juliet. A kind-hearted priest helps the boys where he can.
The change in mind of the other gang after they did get beaten up doesn't seem really credible, and, all in all, it's just too stereotypical and brings nothing really new to the genre. I like good children's films, but this one just feels like there's no real heart in it and Moritz Bleibtreu's character is also more of a caricature than a scary villain. None of the many child actors is really outstanding either. There's many better German children's movies out there. Skip this one.