My Brother the Devil (2012)

Two teenage brothers must face their own prejudices head on if they are to survive the perils of being British Arabs growing up on the streets of gangland London.

Director:

Sally El Hosaini

Writer:

Sally El Hosaini

Stars:

James Floyd, Fady Elsayed, Saïd Taghmaoui

8 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
James Floyd	...	Rashid
Fady Elsayed	...	Mo
Saïd Taghmaoui	...	Sayyid
Aymen Hamdouchi	...	Repo
Ashley Thomas	...	Lenny (as Ashley Bashy Thomas)
Anthony Welsh	...	Izzi
Arnold Oceng	...	Aj
Letitia Wright	...	Aisha
Amira Ghazalla	...	Hanan
Elarica Gallacher	...	Vanessa
Nasser Memarzia	...	Abdul-Aziz
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sylvia Aman	...	Junkie Mum
Denzel Assiamah	...	Bobo
Simona Brown-Zivkovska	...	Schoolgirl
McKell David	...	Demon's Boy (as McKell Celaschi-David)

Storyline

Mo is a young boy growing up in a traditional Egyptian household, but beyond the front door of the family's modest London flat is a completely different world - the streets of Hackney. The impressionable Mo idolizes his handsome older brother Rashid and wants to follow is his footsteps. However, Rashid, a charismatic and shrewd member of a local gang, wants a different life for his little brother and deals drugs hoping to put Mo through college. One eventful summer, Rashid's sexual awakening forces Mo to confront his own fears and phobias and threatens to tear the brothers apart.

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Plot Keywords:

gang | drugs | egyptian | coming of age | gay | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 November 2012 (UK)

Also Known As:

Mein Bruder der Teufel

Filming Locations:

Hackney, London, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$10,305 (USA) (22 March 2013)

Gross:

$10,305 (USA) (22 March 2013)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rooks Nest Entertainment, Wild Horses Film Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in 56th BFI London Film Festival (2012)

User Reviews

Random Notes

A couple of the reviews in NYC said something about iffy or inexperienced acting from the younger brother played by Fady Elsayed, so I was paying particular attention to his acting. Of course in film, as big brother and experienced actor James Floyd is quoted on IMDb, the director and editor can make or break an actor's performance. So maybe Fady sucked 95% of the time, who knows, but what is in the film was just fine by me.

As someone else pointed out here, the younger brother's turnaround at the end of film isn't really explained. But there had to be some passage of time since what had happened to him previously, and I guess we're probably supposed to figure he did a lot of reevaluating and growing up as a result of what he went through. Why there weren't some clues about his thinking and what if anything else influenced him would be a good question for the director and screenwriter and editor though. I suspect there was a scene or two filmed that they decided didn't work or was too obvious or something.

Another commenter here with some real life exposure to this sort of culture thought the low life stuff is a lot worse in real life. Well, it is a fictional film. I've been around the block myself and the drug dealer crack house and its denizens seemed close enough to me.