My Brother Tom

This film marks the feature debut for award-winning documentary director Dom Rotheroe. It is the story of two teenagers, Tom and Jessica. When they meet, Jessica is both worried and intrigued by Tom’s dark side. The forests are his holy domain; he hides there from the misery and oppression at home. He and Jessica form a powerful bond, in which no compromise is possible, because one can change but the other can’t. This will eventually lead to their demise.
Rotheroe wanted to approach the intensity and intimacy of the relationship between Tom and Jessica as closely as he could in the style of his film: raw, emotional and confrontational. He considers it to be a film that could only be filmed in close-ups: the camera had to become part of the action, close to the skin of the characters. The flexibility of a hand-held digital camera made it possible to improvise and to shoot entire scenes, giving the actors the maximum freedom of movement. (Catalogue Film Festival Rotterdam 2001)