An essential responsibility of the family unit is to provide safety and security for its members. Incest involving children and first-degree relatives (parents, siblings) is a particularly shocking violation of that duty.

The main characters in “Brothers by Blood”, based on Pete Dexter’s novel “Brotherly Love”, are similarly struggling to survive in the environment and family circumstances to which they are born. I think it is no coincidence that a compatriot of Zola’s, writer-director Jeremie Guez, was drawn to this material. The brothers referenced in the title are actually cousins and Michael (Joel Kinnaman) is the individual who most closely resembles Gervaise. Unaware of the outside forces coalescing against him, Michael’s life is already cascading downhill as the film opens.

The most profitable studio in Hollywood during the depths of the Great Depression, MGM used its wealth to buy influence. When someone was an asset to MGM, as Hepburn was, that clout was tremendously beneficial. If, however, you were a liability, MGM smothered you like a ton of bricks.
Patricia Douglas, a prime example, was the target of an intense MGM smear campaign in 1937. Her offense? She reported her rape at the hands of an MGM salesman and expected some vindication.

If you feel most films are overloaded with dialogue and deficient in the art of visual storytelling, then “Rams” is the antidote. Writer/director Grimar Hakonarson’s deceptively simple tale of two brothers who have not spoken to each other in forty years, and the crisis that breaks the silence, is an eloquent cinematic meditation on the complexity of family relationships.

With feature film “The Fox” (2022), Goiginger goes deeper into his great-grandfather's psyche, presenting a character who takes refuge in nature after experiencing extreme trauma as a child and the consequent alienation from his fellow human beings.