‘Three brothers’, a “clinical” and objective look at toxic masculinity

The portrait of toxic masculinities in an inhospitable place in Tres hermanos is the contribution to the new Alchemies section of the Seminci by Francisco J. Paparella from Buenos Aires. Far from presenting a Manichean view of characters who “provoke repulsion” and whom “it is impossible not to judge”, the Argentine director has tried to approach their story of miscommunication in an objective manner.

Awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the Mar del Plata Festival, the film adopts this neutral tone to show that this character “is built from the gut, from childhood; the characters do not choose to be the way they are,” said Francisco J. Paparella. “I was interested in portraying that barbarism, those characters as black diamonds, in a clinical way,” added the director.

The film takes advantage of the impressive landscapes of the Argentinean Patagonia as scenery to the point of turning them into another character. The environment determines the personality of these three brothers who “also have something magnetic”.

Its director of photography, Roman Kasseroller, acknowledged that the Patagonian landscape is “the fourth character” in Tres hermanos. “The impossibility of communication” of the protagonists has a lot to do with “the place they inhabit”, the “rough and wild” of the characters is also determined by the scenery in which they live. For Kasseroller “it was important to portray Patagonia, the darkness had to be seen, its burnt and hostile forest”, although also “moments of light, the blue river, the colors of the forest…”.