A bitter rivalry, a dangerous passion, a guilty secret and a world at war.

Farm boy, Jake, lives for girls, guns and adrenalin; his younger brother, Greg, loves poetry. The tensions and bitter rivalry between the two finally erupt into bloody, life-changing violence. With the dark clouds of war looming over England’s green and pleasant land, it is Greg who unexpectedly signs up for front line battle in France.

Against a backdrop of chaos and uncertainty, Greg discovers a world of uncompromising brutality. His journey through war-torn France exposes the very best and very worst of human nature along with the realisation that, no matter how far you run, the past will always find a way of catching up with you.

Gordon Winter

Jacob Jackson
Gordon Winter has featured in over 100 TV commercials, appeared in films by Mike Leigh (‘Secrets and Lies’), Derek Jarman (‘Caravaggio’), Nic Roeg (‘Aria’), Johnny Rotten (PIL: ‘Rise’), Complicite (‘Orbital’) and Walt Disney (‘A Kid in Aladdin’s Court’). He’s been a regular in TV Series’: ‘Frank Stubbs’, ‘Fantastic Facts’, ‘South by South East’, and appeared in TV’s ‘ The Thirteenth Tale’, ‘Friday Night Dinner’, ‘Birds of a Feather’, ‘Casualty’, ‘The Vice’, ‘The Knock’, ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’, ‘The Bill’, ‘Minder’, etc. Extensive theatre includes Hull Truck touring (‘Bouncers’), plus Mike Carter’s ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ (Farmer Bean), ‘Pinocchio’ (Circus Master) and ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

Fiona Bruce

Margret Jackson
Fiona Bruce has worked extensively in film, TV and theatre. She has just finished playing Baruska for over a year in the award-winning West End production of ‘Once’.  Other credits include the lead role in ‘Mother Courage’ (Watford Palace Theatre), lead role, Camille Claudel in ‘The Waltz’ (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Jenny in ‘Threepenny Opera’ (London Bubble Theatre), Beth Cuxom in ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ (Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham), Mrs Bumble in ‘Oliver Twist’  (Bolton Octagon) and Olga in the much-acclaimed ‘Playing for Time’ (Salisbury Playhouse). She also played Molly in a one-woman show, ‘Molly Moonshine’.  TV credits include ‘Last of The Summer Wine’, ‘The Royal’, ‘Emmerdale’, ‘Where the Heart Is’, ‘Heartbeat’, ‘Prime Suspect’, ‘The Ward’, ‘Grange Hill’, ‘Taggart’ and ‘Coronation Street’.

Lucas Tucknott

Director of Photography
Lucas Tucknott is an award winning Director of Photography, Camera Operator and Steadicam Operator. Always passionate about film and photography, he has been involved in the creative industry since setting up his own Multimedia Company aged 16. He has been a Director of Photography on a number of feature films, short films, commercials and music videos. He also films live sports events and is a resident cameraman at the Brighton and Hove Football Club.

Freddie Smith

Editor
As a curious and technical editor, Freddie is motivated by the delicate potency of character-based storytelling. He has edited fiction for over ten years and loves learning the craft across a wide range of genres and styles. Freddie is also the founder of Pocket Square Pictures, a team and workflow-oriented collective of Post specialists, which he runs in both Copenhagen and London. It’s important to him to join projects as early as possible to help sculpt the storytelling alongside the other creative departments. Freddie is also a keen Celtic/Jazz violinist and loves taking portraits, both on and off set.

Katherine Richards

Production Designer
Katherine’s career in design spans 35 years and has included a multitude of applications: graphic design, advertising and magazine styling, fashion design and manufacture, sculpture, illustration, theatre stage and costume design. Her passion for theatre stage design in London led her to a wealth of work with new writers where she was nominated twice at the London Design Awards. Working on Brothers at War has been a new experience for her but her knowledge of theatre design contributed to the look and style of the movie. She currently runs her own successful interior design company where she is widely known for her theatrical flair.

Mark Hodgkin

Sound Designer
From early age Mark’s passion for music began and he learned classical and electric guitar. Later he schooled at the Municipal School of Music in Sao Paulo, where he also studied Computer Engineering at the University of Sao Paulo. He also did School of Audio Engineering in London where he combined his passions for the creative and technical sides. Since then, Mark has been involved in many TV commercials, documentaries, short and feature films both as a sound designer and composer. Recently he was nominated for best original score for a short film in the International Southampton Film Festival and now also works as a Supervising Sound Editor for feature films.

The complex emotions within families have always intrigued me.  Years ago, when I was a teacher, it would only take me a few days before I reckoned that I could tell whether the children in my class had brothers or sisters and whether their siblings were older or younger than they were.  And I was even quicker at spotting an ‘only child’.  I believe the relationships we form with our siblings and our parents do more than anything else to shape our personalities.

But that actually wasn’t the starting point of ‘Brothers of War’ for me.

I have lived into my late fifties having never been involved in a war and I have often wondered how I would have reacted in battle.  Outnumbered, would I have turned and run, or would I have stood my ground and fought?  Would I have given up the names of my fellow conspirators under the duress of torture?  Or would I – could I – have been the torturer?  War produces the very best and the very worst in people and it’s impossible to know or understand the character-shaping consequence of extreme conflict.  And for that very reason, war makes a great backdrop for any film.

But war wasn’t the starting point of ‘Brothers of War’ either.

I’m no mathematician; I have always been drawn to the Arts above the Sciences. But I am obsessed with ‘chance’ and ‘probability’. As a young child I would be forever playing with a set of dice, fascinated by the probability of different combinations.  There is a moment in ‘Brothers of War’ when Jake spins the barrel of a revolver for a second time and claims:  ‘The odds don’t change, do they?  It’s always one in six’.  That was both the starting image and the initial concept which triggered ‘Brothers of War’.  The rest is the most extraordinary journey of my life.

Mike Carter