Two Brothers

Two Brothers
Poster for Two Brothers
Directed by	Jean-Jacques Annaud
Produced by	Jean-Jacques Annaud Jake Eberts
Written by	Alain Godard Jean-Jacques Annaud
Starring	Guy Pearce Freddie Highmore Jean-Claude Dreyfus
Music by	Stephen Warbeck
Cinematography	Jean-Marie Dreujou
Editing by	Noëlle Boisson
Distributed by	Universal Pictures Pathé Fox Europa (France)
Release date(s)	France: April 7, 2004 United States: June 25, 2004 United Kingdom: July 23, 2004 Japan: September 18, 2004 Australia: November 25, 2004
Running time	109 minutes
Country	France United Kingdom
Language	English, Thai, French

Two Brothers is a 2004 adventure/family film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. It is about two tigers who are separated as cubs and then reunited years later.

Plot

Set in 1930s French Indochina, two tigers are separated as cubs after the ancient temple where they live is disturbed by Aidan McRory who intends to steal and sell the ancient statues.

Two tiger cubs are playing when one (later named Sangha) comes upon a young civet. Sangha chases the civet into its burrow and the mother civet appears and chases Sangha up a tree. The other tiger cub (later named Kumal) appears and chases the mother civet away. Gunshots are heard, and the tigress arrives to protect the cubs. She picks Sangha up and runs for safety. Kumal follows, but can't keep up and falls behind. The cubs' father appears, but the men have caught up with them and he is shot dead by McRory.

McRory is an unscrupulous explorer, big-game hunter and temple looter. He discovers Kumal and befriends him, but McRory is arrested for stealing from the ancient temple and Kumal is kept by the chief in the Cambodian village where McRory had been staying. The chief then sells Kumal to a circus where he is to be the star attraction.

Sangha remains in the jungle with his mother, but both are soon trapped by McRory as game for a vain Khmer prince to hunt. The mother is shot in the ear and thought to be dead before she jumps up and runs off. Sangha is discovered by young Raoul, son of the French administrator, Normandin, and becomes the child's pet.

Kumal is trained by cruel circus ringmaster Zerbino to do tricks, such as jumping through a flaming hoop, while Sangha in a fright seriously hurts Raoul's dog and, considered too wild to remain in the French household, is made a part of the prince's palace menagerie.

The prince then decides to hold a festival in which a battle between two great beasts - the brother tigers - will be the centerpiece. When placed in the cage before the audience during the festival, the two brothers do not immediately recognize each other, and Kumal is afraid to fight. However, when the brothers finally recognize each other they begin to play together instead of fighting,and the audince likes this but the trainers don't. The trainer attempts to antagonize the tigers into fighting, but as he opens the cage to shoot one, the tigers escape, managing to frighten the trainers and the audience into the cage themselves.

The two tigers escape, and McRory is determined to hunt them down. After Kumal showing Sangha how to jump through fire to escape, McRory and Raoul find them. However, as McRory takes aim at Sangha, Kumal appears, and demonstrates that he remembers the sweets McRory used to give him. McRory puts down his gun and vows never to hunt again.

The two brothers make their way back to their temple home in the jungle with McRory and Raoul, and a third tiger greets them. Then, it is shown that the third tiger is her mother, and the movie ends with the three tigers together. Just before the credits, some comments to save the tigers(as a species) are shown.

Cast

• Guy Pearce as Aidan McRory
• Freddie Highmore as Young Raoul
• Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Administrator Normandin
• Oanh Nguyen as His Excellency
• Vincent Scarito as Zerbino

Production

Around 30 tigers were used for the film, the majority from French zoos and others from Thailand.^[1]

References

External links

• Official website
• Two Brothers at the Internet Movie Database
• Two Brothers at Rotten Tomatoes