The story is about Nina, a transgender woman who was rejected by her family. 5 years later she receives an envelope from her brother Ryan. Instead of finding a letter, Nina finds a wedding portrait of Ryan and his wife. She responds by sending a photo of her and Mary, her girlfriend. They exchange photos for months. Not a word is ever exchanged between the siblings. Nina will have to overcome her anger towards her family.

Family is usually the place where we first experience love and this story explores the difficulty of being rejected by one’s family because of their gender identity. The main character Nina shows how she struggles between her love for her brother and the chase of her true self. While they were separated by force, the intricate way in which the siblings manage to stay connected without the exchange of words depicts the power of connection between them, and the power of love and acceptance. The film will portray the complex emotions of each character. The message is that time and love can heal everything.

The setting is an extension of the character's inner emotions, so we will be using dark red and navy colours to represent Nina's anger and resentment and light green and yellow colours to represent the sense of hope and the possibility of a new beginning.

Time is an important theme of Dear Brother, we will include slow motion, long takes and other forms of time manipulation to help convey the message of the story.

Close-ups and extreme close-ups will be used to highlight the character’s emotional depth, while wide shots will be used to extenuate the feelings of loss and isolation.

As with any film production, many elements are required to bring a beautiful story to life. As students in film production, we are lucky to have free access to film equipment, however, we still need your support to find filming locations, the cast, props and costumes, and most importantly to create a safe work environment for the cast and crew. We are not paying ourselves to make this film as we want to invest all your donations in the quality of the film. We wish to allocate the money we collect as follows:

Christophe Mordant

I am Christophe, the director on this project. I am a final year student at Queen Mary University of London. To me, Dear Brother is a beautiful way to finish my degree before jumping in the film industry for good. I love how this story shows that whatever your gender identity is, we are all the same and the emotions we go through are universal.

Suzan Al-Sharif

Hi, I’m Suzan the DoP of Dear Brother, meaning I will be handling the cinematography. I’m a final year film studies student at QMUL. I am really excited to work on this project because the story holds such an important message of love, acceptance and forgiveness which I think is really beautiful. I am really passionate about everything creative and a visual thinker and would love to capture the emotional depth of the story through the creative use of the camera

Yongxue Liang

I am Yongxue, doing my Master's degree at Queen Mary University now. In the project, I am in the art department, doing the setting for the scene and making costumes and make-up for actors.

I love this story because the story raises the love from family instead of political correctness.

So the film would be an emotional and touching one, which relies on the visual presentation. We would try our best to convey the beauty of this story, and it would be easier to make it come to life with your support. Thank you~

Jieran Zhang

Hi, I'm Jieran, a master's student at Queen Mary University of London. I am taking care of the sound of the film. I was touched by the story when we first brainstormed the idea in group. The love between Nina and his brother can cross time and space, it is so warm and it makes me feel hopeful.  I hope this film will bring you the same good feeling as it did to me, maybe more. we would love your help to bring this film to reality.

Instagram: @dear.brother.film

Christophe Mordant - tot.mordant@gmail.com 

Suzan Al Sharif - suzan.film@gmail.com 

Yongxue Liang - sherryk0672@gmail.com 

Jieran Zhang - jieran001@gmail.com