''My Brother's Gun'' ( es, La pistola de mi hermano, links=no) is a 1997 Spanish film directed and written by

Ray Loriga Jorge Loriga Torrenova, better known as Ray Loriga (born March 5, 1967), is a Spanish author, screenwriter, and director. His first novel ''Lo Peor de todo'' (''The Worst Thing of All''), was published in 1992, and was followed by ''Héroes'' i ...

in his feature-length directorial debut. It stars Daniel González, Nico Bidásolo and

Andrés Gertrúdix Andrés Gertrúdix (born 1977) is a Spanish actor. Biography Andrés Gertrúdix was born in 1977 in Madrid. He made his feature film debut in Ray Loriga's '' My Brother's Gun''. He is the partner of actress Marian Álvarez, whom with he has f ...

, with

Anna Galiena Anna Galiena (born 22 December 1954) is an Italian actress, best known to English-speaking audiences for her appearances in ''Le Mari de la coiffeuse'', '' Jamón, jamón'', '' Being Human'' and ''Senso '45''. Movie career In her youth, Galien ...

Karra Elejalde Carlos Elejalde Garay (born 10 October 1960) better known as Karra Elejalde, is a Spanish actor and occasional filmmaker. Biography Carlos Elejalde Garay was born on 10 October 1960 in Vitoria-Gasteiz. He developed his early acting career on i ...

Viggo Mortensen Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. R (; born October 20, 1958) is an American actor, writer, director, producer, musician, and multimedia artist. Born and raised in the State of New York to a Danish father and American mother, he also lived in Argentin ...

, and

Christina Rosenvinge Christina Rosenvinge Hepworth (born 29 May 1964) is a Spanish singer. A veteran of the music industry with a career spanning more than thirty years she was a member of the Spanish groups Alex y Christina and Christina y Los Subterráneos, whic ...

in supporting roles.

Plot

After shooting and killing a security guard in a mall, a young man flees alongside a girl who has just attempted suicide.

Cast

Production

The film is an adaptation of Loriga's novel ''Caídos del cielo'' as well as the

Generation X Generation X (or Gen X for short) is the Western world, Western demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1960s as starting birth years a ...

novelist's debut feature; Loriga had previously been involved in the film industry in the writing of ''

Live Flesh ''Live Flesh'', is a psychological thriller by British author Ruth Rendell, published in 1986. It won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year. It was the inspiration for a film of the same name by Pedro Almod ...

''. The film was produced by

Enrique Cerezo Enrique Cerezo Torres (born 27 February 1948), is a Spanish film producer and the current president of Atlético Madrid, a position he has held since 2002. Cinematographic career Cerezo began in cinema in 1967 as a camera assistant in the movie ...

, and it had the participation/collaboration of TVE and

Canal+ Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...

Release

The film was presented at the 42nd

Valladolid International Film Festival The Valladolid International Film Festival, popularly known as Seminci (short for ; ), is a film festival held annually in Valladolid, Spain. First held in 1956 as ('Valladolid Religious Film Week'), the Seminci is one of the longest-standing fi ...

(Seminci) in October 1997. Distributed by

United International Pictures United International Pictures (UIP) is a joint venture of Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures that distributes their films outside the United States and Canada. UIP also had international distribution rights to certain Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer an ...

, the film was theatrically released in Spain on 14 November 1997.

Reception

Jonathan Holland of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' deemed the "languid Hispanic reprise of pics such as ''

Kalifornia ''Kalifornia'' is a 1993 American road thriller film directed by Dominic Sena, in his feature film directorial debut. It stars Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny, and Michelle Forbes. The film tells the story of a journalist (Duchovny) ...

'' and ''

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''" to feature "considerably more style than substance" despite being "beautifully shot and edited".

Ángel Fernández-Santos Ángel Fernández-Santos (1934–2004) was a Spanish film critic and screenwriter. Born in Los Cerralbos, province of Toledo, in 1934, he was the younger brother of Marxist philosopher . He studied for a brief spell at the in the early 1960s. As ...

of ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'' considered that despite featuring a "lively and rich narrative material", Loriga deals with it "clumsily", as the helmer rushed into a "reckless journey from literary to cinematographic language, without mastering the articulations of the latter".

References