Brother

Aleksei Balabanov's Brother marks Russian cinema's first foray into the mafia/gangster genre, and Sergei Bodrov's Danila contends with many classic film mobsters. His arrival in St. Petersburg is sort of vague, we understand that Danila was a soldier doing some kind of war, and although he claims to have been a clerk at HQ, his familiarity with violence and guns seems to suggest otherwise. He is in this sense enigmatic, he is a kind, genuine, and generally amiable character who just happens to be good at violence. This is ironic then that his brother is the contract killer, when his brother is mean and apparently horrible at killing people. First, Viktor is not seen actually killing anyone throughout the entirety of the film, and gives all of his assignments to Danila; second, he sells Danila out to Kruglyi. I think Danila could best be characterized as initially apathetic (aside from his love for music), just doing things for his brother because they are brothers, not because he likes killing. He merely does the things that he is good at, and it really isn't until the end of the film when he makes a choice to continue people when he begins hitchhiking to Moscow. Keep in mind that all the killing he has done so far (and really everything else he has done so far) has been reactionary, the assinations are done for his brother, and the extra killings of other hitmen are done for the safety of people he meets and cares about, even his defense of Sveta is because her husband beats her, which actually suggests a moral code for Danila, which is in turn supported by his love for his family. To put a capstone on it, Danila Bagrov is like Michael Corleone on steroids and with an itchier trigger finger.