Karlovy Vary 2010: Daniel Burman’s Brother and Sister

Often referred to as the South American Woody Allen, Daniel Burman usually directs talkative dramedies of the Jewish experience in exile. Brother and Sister is a change of pacing for the director, apart from one “Lechaim!” scene, there’s no trace of Judaism in the film adaptation of Diego Dubcovsky’s novel, which basically tells the story of an elderly pair of siblings via the point of view of Susana (Graciela Borges), the bossy one who gets around, and Marcos (Antonio Gasalla), the quiet greyish man, who hands over the control to his sister.

There isn’t much character development, and suffice to say that a lot of “non-events” that occur in this film. Burman has always had an ear for dialogue, so most of this film flows pleasantly, but the parting taste that one keeps from the film is that this is tasty like a Junior Mint – nice, refreshing but unnutritious.