Recently, movie theaters welcomed "The Day After Tomorrow," a political disaster film about the consequences of global anti-environment government policies. This week, from the director that made the 1989 Academy Award nominated film "The Bear," comes another major motion about the environment.

"Two Brothers" is a picture about wild animals and their fate at the hands of humans in Indochina. Like "Day After," it is also a morality tale.

Twin tigers are born in the ruins of a deserted temple in the Cambodian jungles toward the end of the French colonization era, c. 1920. Kumal and Sangha are princes, and they bask and frolic for their parents. They roam in freedom, rule their kingdom and learn the way of the tiger.

Treasure hunters, led by big game hunter and writer Aidan McRory (Guy Pearce) come to loot the temples for Europe. The party comes upon the tiger family unexpectedly and Pearce is forced to shoot the Great Tiger. The Tigress escapes with Sangha, and Pearce captures Kumal whom he takes back to the city. The Tigress tries to follow Sangha and is shot through the ear. When Pearce arrives at the city, he is arrested by the regional governor Normandin (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) for looting and Kumal is sold to the circus.

When Normandin forces McRory to choose between jail or leading the local prince on a hunting trip so he can have his picture taken with a tiger killed as a trophy, Sangha is captured.

How the two brothers come together again after they are grown and finally return to the wild, forms the rest of this beautifully filmed tale.

Peace
Jean-Jacques Annaud, whose other credits include "In the Name of the Rose," wrote this story several years ago during a family vacation over Christmas. Annaud also admits that after finishing the war film "Enemy at the Gates" (2001) "with its many explosions," he felt the need to produce a story that would allow him to feel brotherhood, peace and happiness.

He says that after "The Bear," he had resolved never again to work with animals. But his fascination with "the animal world, monasteries and temples and the European colonial period" led him to do research that revealed an image of a baby tiger in a picture --- an image that stayed with him and influenced his writing the "Two Brothers."

Nature and the environment
Annaud freely admits that "Two Brothers" is a fable with a "moral with relevance to contemporary issues" such as respect for wild animals and the environment. "I suffer when I see what we are doing to our planet," he told journalists in Los Angeles earlier this month.

He said he hopes "people will think twice before cutting down trees they don't want or killing animals they don't like." He noted that deforestation in Cambodia, where the major photography for the film was done, is at a crisis point.

Thirty-two different tigers were used to make "Two Brothers," and the filming was done with the filmmakers in the cage rather than the other way around. Annaud noted that though working with tigers is seductive, they had to remember they were working with 450-pound carnivores. What is most interesting is that the only CGI (computer generated images) used were the goldfish because the real ones kept hiding in the foliage whenever it was time to film them. A puppet replaced the cub Sangha for interior scenes.

When asked about his view of the environment, Guy Pearce said that he has developed a passion for the ecological message. "I am becoming more aware about this issue; once you are educated about something you can't help but think about it." Pearce said that the film helped him change his ways about recycling and how he uses water. "I am gradually becoming more aware of what we can do for the earth."

Asked what his favorite film was, Pearce replied that it was "The Elephant Man" because it involved the handicapped and was "so touching and real" and dealt with how people treat one another. Pearce's recalled how he watched his own sister, who is handicapped, struggle when teased by other kids. He is now actively involved with an organization founded by his mother for the developmentally challenged.

Catholic teaching
"Two Brothers" (as well as "The Day After Tomorrow") reflects Catholic social teaching on the environment and provides many themes for conversation and reflection and may be an ideal way to introduce these topics to children. Here is what The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers (n. 339):

"Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection. For each one of the works of the 'six days,' it is said: 'And God saw that it was good.' 'By the very nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth and excellence, its own order and laws' (Gaudium et Spes, n. 36).

"Each of the various creatures, willed in its own being, reflects in its own way a ray of God's infinite wisdom and goodness. Man must therefore respect the particular goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things which would be in contempt of the Creator and would bring disastrous consequences for human beings and their environment."

A Family Film?
Director Annaud and Pearce both agree that "Two Brothers" is a family film, though perhaps not for kids who may expect the more common entertainment approach. Two Brothers is on the serious side and parallels the animal kingdom and human life, the role and bond of the family and its sacredness.

Although "Two Brothers" is both drama and a fable, the film has the feel of a documentary and there are long sequences of tiger behavior. But if you have patience and a contemplative spirit, "Two Brothers" may be just the film for you

For a perspective on a Christian response to "The fragility of civilization," read David P. Gushee's column on page 10 of the June 25 Tidings.