You get to choose your friends, but you don’t get to choose your family. In Ibrahim Mada and Jordan Charles’ dramatic thriller Brothers in Arms, the bonds of a brotherhood weigh heavy like a hangman’s noose.
Nick (Jordan Charles) and Leon (Vic Bagratuni) are brothers separated as children not long after the death of their mother. Nick was heartbroken as a boy, but because of Leon’s violent tendencies, their family thought it was best to separate the two.
Decades later, Nick is an LAPD officer and has been on the hunt for the notorious mobster Don Guerra (Peter Lucas). But everyone on the force knows that Nick should be looking for Guerra’s mysterious right-hand man, known as the Lion. What Nick doesn’t know is the only person who can lead him to the Lion is his estranged convict father, which, in turn, will lead him to lost brother Leon.

“…Nick has been on the hunt for the notorious mobster Don Guerra…[he] should be looking for Guerra’s mysterious right-hand man…”
Brothers in Arms is a gritty crime drama about family. The film follows Nick’s story as a man obsessed with finding closure to the open wound he has been carrying since childhood and not realizing that the path to healing goes straight into a gang war on the streets of Los Angeles.
Shot and paced in the style of film noir, Jordan Charles carries us through Nick’s story as the stand-up police detective whose life slowly unravels with the news of his brother Leon setting off a series of events that cut Nick to the core personally and professionally. Let’s just say that the family reunion isn’t exactly a happy moment.
Directors Mada and Charles chart Nick’s emotional path beautifully and capture the right dark tones of Nick’s downward spiral. Brothers in Arms is a proof of concept for a feature film and builds to a proper cliffhanger, leaving you wondering what will happen next.
For screening information, visit the Brothers in Arms official website.