Rocky Braat was just another directionless, disenchanted young American who set out to see the world, when he took a job as a helper in an orphanage in India for children with HIV/AIDS. Almost immediately, he found this had become his calling. He bonded, unexpectedly and inseparably, with the whole brood there, and even fell in love with an Indian woman whom he later married. After a year, he returned to America to reconnect with his close friend, filmmaker Steve Hoover, and to tell him all about his life-changing experience. Hoover was so intrigued and happy for him, he decided to join Rocky on his return to India. Hence, the documentary Blood Brother was born.
Just thinking about this film disturbs and moves me, but it one hundred percent pays dividends. After covering Braat's troubled childhood (his mother battled addiction and his stepfather abused him), Hoover takes a fly-on-the-wall approach to showing Rocky going about his work with the children, whether it's playing either traditional Indian or Western games with them, disciplining them or attending to their medical needs (including an excruciatingly graphic but tenderly handled surgery scene). Now, you might think as Braat's close mate, Hoover would be incapable of objectivity and impartiality here but in the numerous interviews, he takes a takes a backseat and lets Rocky be almost disarmingly honest (among other things, he admits beforehand he didn't even like kids) and ultimately, his movie reveals how Rocky and the kids have helped each other grow, learn and flourish equally. It also manages this without forcing the one-person-can-make-a-difference message down our throats.
Blood Brother is about a journey; two, actually, as its effect on Hoover also ultimately becomes clear. And it will take you, shaken but thoroughly enriched, with it every step of the way.
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