In the Arms of My Enemy (2007)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Truly this is such a great film. Right from the start you will be gripped by this film and you will sit watching it with total attention until its completion. The drama is so well constructed, but there is so much more to the film than that.The four main characters are two sets of brothers surviving on the edge. Life at the beginning of the 19th century is very tough and so these brothers are very closely bonded. You might say there is a homo-erotic element to this film, however although I am a gay many myself I don't think these closely bonded males are in any way being depicted as gay. I think rather, they cling to each other because that is all the security they have.I watched this film at home and a friend had suggested it to me. I didn't know anything about it before I started watching it. I think that it is probably set in Ukraine, but I am not sure. A quick bit of googling has not been very fruitful, from that I read simply that it is set in Eastern Europe.The dialogue is sparse and in French. I watched it with English subtitles. However character development is excellent and the acting is first class as well.I have not seen any films by Micha Wald before and I will most definitely be watching his other films in due course.

Brutal to the point of pointless. The over-repeated ring of bones crunching, snapping and breaking is what you shall take away with you. A wasted opportunity, considering the time, place and people in history are much neglected by western cinema.The violence, which hogs everything, even itself becomes dramatically repetitive. The whole, inevitable, boring thing underscored by a vaguely religious male choral electronic musical voice which becomes camper and camper as the violence becomes more absurd.The landscape is all but ignored. The people largely reduced and the protagonists used to synthesize the maker's own indulgent idea of tragedy and masculine beauty. Sadly,the taught notion that thoughtless brutality is somehow elevating when contrasted with the prettiness of youth (or is it meant to be the other way around?) just felt immature rather than informed or emotionally meaningful.Such a waste. Just to add in it's favour, that the leads did bring good performances.

Micha Wald has created a strong masculine drama as writer and director of 'VOLEURS DE CHEVAUX' (IN THE ARMS OF MY ENEMY), a film with a grand sweeping view of nineteenth century life in the region of Russia and has accomplished this with a very small budget, a cast a both unknown and new actors, and a production crew sensitive to place and atmosphere. For some reason the marketing of this film has been directed to a particular audience instead of emphasizing the broad spectrum of those who love epic dramas. It deserves very wide attention, as it is an excellent meditation on the rigors of filial love among the destitute of the period. Part I: Him: Jakub (Adrien Jolivet) is the diminutive but strong older brother of Vladimir (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet), a gentle and handsome young lad who depends on Jakub's 'parenting'. The two destitute brothers fend for themselves, dressed in rags, begging for food and work, until they encounter a group of soldiers who are enlisting young men to be Cossacks. Jakub sees the opportunity for food and shelter and 'belonging' and encourages Vladimir to join him in enlisting. The rigors of 'boot camp' drive Jakub to dangerous extremes and result in his being punished and imprisoned for varying periods of time while he still masters fighting techniques and equestrian skills: the more defenseless Vladimir falls victim to abuses at the hands of his fellow recruits. When Jakub discovers that Vladimir has been raped, he resorts to serious fighting and the two brothers are placed in a solitary confinement box. When their training period is over, the boys witness the brutality of the Cossacks as they slaughter innocent families, and this is the breaking point that drives them to desertion. They escape the Cossacks on stolen horses, but while bathing in a river, their horses are stolen. Part II: Them: The horse thieves are two other impoverished brothers with a strong parallel - Roman (Grégoire Colin) is the stronger, pugilistic older brother who takes care of his younger brother Elias (François-René Dupont), a gentle lad crippled in youth by a goring from a ram but who maintains an ability to communicate with animals. They live humbly in a forest shack and an underground hideaway, and when they make their rare excursions into the village tavern, Roman jealously guards the more fragile Elias, threatening even the girl Virina (Mylène St-Sauveur) with whom Elias is infatuated. Using a combination of their skills, Roman and Elias steal the horses of Jakub and Vladimir, and the trail of vengeance begins. Part III: Us: Both sets of brothers are needy and their destinies collide due to the theft of horses. Tragedies mount, both sets of brothers intensify their filial bond of compassion, but the older brothers fight to the death of one and in the end one of the brothers provides succor to the survivor of the other set of brothers and the ending leaves the audience to guess the future altered by violence and need. Micha Wald draws powerful performances from his young cast of beautiful actors and with a minimum of dialogue ( in French with English subtitles) he creates wholly credible characters about whom we care very much. The cinematography by Jean-Paul de Zaetijd is superb and the haunting musical score by Jóhann Jóhannsson, Jeff Mercelis and Stephan Micus is rich in capturing the harmonies of the music of the period and the location. In all, this is a visually stunning film and a story that is subtle and touching and impressively sophisticated in the manner in which it is told. Highly recommended. Grady Harp

I first saw this film at the 2008 Philadelphia Film Festival in April and I was completely blown away by it. With its hyper-link structure, fascinating characters and distinctive visual and aural style, In The Arms Of My Enemy is the reason I go to movies in the first place!The film begins with two AWOL Cossacks, Jakub (Adrien Jolivet) and his younger brother Vladimir (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet) swimming in a small river. Unbeknownst to them while they frolic, two young horse thieves, Roman (Gregoire Colin) and his younger brother Elias (Francois-Rene Dupont) are creeping up and in a flash, they steal the Cossacks' horses. This leads us into the first section of this film, all connected by this incident at the river.Here we meet Jakub and Vladimir and discover how they came to be on that riverbank getting their horses stolen. The time is the early 19th Century, somewhere in Eastern Europe and Jakub and Vlad are two dirt-poor souls with no apparent family and nothing else to keep them together than their own brotherly love.Jakub is slight and easily excitable, very much the kind who over-compensates for being physically tiny and while his brother Vlad is taller, he is the more sensitive of the two boys and we get the feeling that Jakub has been stepping in to protect Vlad his whole life. But right now, times are extremely tough and these two boys have been literally reduced to stealing crusts of bread for sustenance along with the occasional pickle from the tables of customers at a roadside inn.Just then, some Cossacks come into the inn and ask if there are any men brave enough and strong enough to join them? Jakub thinks that he and Vlad should join the Cossacks, although Vlad is apprehensive, Jakub convinces him that, with winter coming, if they were with the Cossacks, they would at least be clothed and fed.Convincing Vlad to join was one thing, convincing the Cossack officers to let them join is another. One Cossack officer is particularly cruel towards Jakub because of Jakub's diminutive stature and thinks Jakub is mentally handicapped, but he relents and lets the two boys join.Cossack training is tough (think of the basic training scenes in Full Metal Jacket, but not so hygienic) and Jakub, because he is so quick to anger, finds himself frequently in trouble and spends a good deal of time locked up in a sweat-box for punishment. When Jakub is out of the picture, Vladimir is often beset upon by the other boys and when he's not being raped, he is being mentally tormented and abused.After much misadventure, Jakub and Vlad graduate and soon come to realize that being a Cossack is nasty business. Neither one is happy about all the wanton murdering and pillaging that Cossacks are required to do and this leads them to go AWOL and eventually to the river where their horses get stolen.We then move into the second part of the film where we learn about Roman and Elias. They are also poor and have no family but make a small living as thieves and they maintain a very nifty hideout buried in the forest floor. We learn that Elias has some kind of gift that allows him to communicate with animals, especially horses whereas his older brother Roman is the more practical of the two as well as the more cynical.We learn about a time when they were boys when through Roman's carelessness and cowardice, Elias received a severe injury to his right leg and now walks with a pronounced gimp. But it has made Roman hyper-protective of Elias and he gets jealous of Elias even meeting other people.This all takes us back to the original horse theft scene and during this confrontation, Vlad is killed by Roman and this sets us up for the final part of the film where Jakub, consumed by revenge stalks Roman and finds that he may be able to get to Roman through his brother Elias. But Elias, who is unaware of Vlad's death and of who Jakub really is, sees Jakub as basically a decent person, which he is, albeit on the excitable side.This does not comfort Roman who understands it will be either kill or get killed with Jakub. The whole film now hurtles towards a devastating finale and then on to a reconciliation that is beautiful, amazing and completely surprising; at least it was to me.What really makes this film work as a superior piece of film craft, aside from the gorgeous cinematography, the believable settings and costumes along with the fantastic music, is the undeniable charm of the four leading actors. Without them, this film would be nothing.All four are gorgeous in their own unique ways but looking at the DVD cover art, I fear this film will be marketed towards a gay demographic, which would be a shame. That would limit In The Arms Of My Enemy solely to its homo-erotic appeal and, although that is definitely there, this film has more to offer than just masculine eye candy. This film has a very original human drama and looks deeply into the kind of close relationships between brothers that you don't see in many other films.In The Arms Of My Enemy is very well made, considering its low budget. Director Micha Wald only had some forests, fields and rivers to film in, yet he manages to make a visually interesting piece. It is amazing just how much emotion and narrative can be conveyed by simple looks from the actors and easy, elegant camera moves.A note to all low-budget filmmakers, study this film for tips on how to get the most visual bang for your independent buck.This is truly one film you will have to see to appreciate and I sincerely hope more people do.