Brothers of the Head (18)

Cast: Harry Treadaway, Luke Treadaway, Bryan Dick, Sean Harris. Anne Lambton

Samantha Hamilton

Brothers of the Head has an irresistibly strange premise. Conjoined twins Tom and Barry are plucked from their isolated home on the east coast of England by a music producer looking for a freak act. After being groomed for camp pop stardom they subvert their Svengali and end up heading up the early days of punk rock. It doesn't come much stranger than that, but what results is a film that is strange and unnerving but also touching and quietly thought provoking.

Delivered as mock-rockumentary, the film merges ‘real' footage of the twins with a retelling of the times of the contemporary major players in their life which explores the blur between truthful and subjective memory, all within a framework of fiction.

Some playful scenes, such as that of Ken Russell sending himself up as he discusses scenes from his awful attempt to fictionalise the brother’s story in true Hollywood overkill, add to the layers of truth and myth.

However, we are prevented from becoming too dislocated by a spot on the spirit of the early days of the punk ethic. The brothers are born into a world that will struggle to accept them. During their formative years their father hides them away for what he believes is their protection until they are sold as a commodity.

What then follows is the essence of the subversion of the punk rock aesthetic. Tom and Barry tear a hole in the universe of those who sought to exploit and manipulate their freakishness and lack of talent by reclaiming their weaknesses for themselves with the 'punk don't give a fuck' attitude.

The film has a great soundtrack that perfectly evokes the period, and you can’t help but get caught up in the desire to have been in that grimy pub in Stockwell when they ripped it up and threw their freakishness firmly back in our faces.

The real strength of the film lies in the performances from rather cute and un-conjoined twin brothers Harry and Luke Treadaway. Their depiction is deeply thought out and sensitive. They succeed in what is a mammoth task, but essential to this tale, in that they make the brothers human to be contrasted against the carnival of freakishness that is society.

Both actors manage to work both alone and together to portray the individuality of two beings, but convey the impenetrable bonds that their physical and emotional unity has given them. Before you ask, yes you do see the twins conjoined nature in great detail, their intimate spatial awareness of each other and their unified movements ensure what is visually strange seems authentically natural to them, and this sensitivity happily prevents the film from slipping into a freak show of its own.

As the heady atmosphere of excess and breathless subversion turns sour and the twins' story takes a tragic turn Brothers of the Head is reminiscent of David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers. As in Dead Ringers the intensity and tenuous balance of their unity is further exposed when a third party in the shape of love interest Laura both empowers them, but in turn highlights the conundrum of their being. The twins can never escape what they are, and would not want to. But during all the spiralling notoriety, worship and first love they descend into a complex relationship of stability and instability, of love and hate for their shared being. As in Dead Ringers, one twin descends into a downward spiral and the other follows.

Directors Fulton and Pepe have worked and lived together throughout their career and the dynamics of a creative yet suffocating relationship fuelled their interest in the source material. The film is based on a book by Brain Aldiss, which alludes to the twins as genuine shadowy cultural icons and yes the internet was consulted, but this reviewer could find no confirmation of the source material being rooted in truth.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter, the story serves them well and although Brothers of the Head is not a great film, it’s both exhilarating and intense, tragic and life affirming and refreshing for it.