My Brother the Devil

Seen this film at Sundance and was absolutely amazed by the acting in it. This film is so authentic, I loved that some of the cast are people from the streets of London. Listening to the director even prior to the screening talk about being excited screening in front of "real" people instead of the usual Sundance industry crowd was refreshing. Can't wait for some of her other stuff. The film feature some amazing cinematography. The scene with the younger brother on the tree with use of sunlight is beautiful.

See this film and watch out for everyone involved.

P.S. I cannot believe Fady Elsayed who played the younger brother hasn't acted before. That guys gonna be a star!

You could cynically call this another "drug" movie that plays out, while using the backdrop of a family. A family that has more than a few issues obviously. But you wouldn't be fair to the movie if you did that. You might not be in the mood for the movie or you might have seen a similar formula being used before, but the movie is more than decent.

You got two brothers (title is a bit of a give away), one deep inside the "business", the other one seeming to be too naive to be able to comprehend any of it. Still you can see that there is a lot of seduction (money, women, "fame") and it's difficult to resist. Or is it? Obviously things happen and evolve. While there is no nudity, sexuality plays a role, in case you were wondering.

MY BROTHER THE DEVIL has quite a lot of quality for a low budget, shot-on-the-streets type of British youth film. It tells the story of a couple of Arab kids growing up on the mean streets of Hackney, where they must intermingle with drug gangs and adult life in a bid to make something of their lives - or merely survive.

Unfortunately for me, I've seen all this sort of thing before in the likes of Noel Clarke's KIDULTHOOD and ADULTHOOD, plus the wave of films along the same line that have been made over the past decade, and MY BROTHER THE DEVIL doesn't really have much more to say on the subject, other than to make a point of how ridiculous, violent, and difficult it all is. Director Sally El Hosaini elicits some strong performances from her young, unknown cast members, and the film is certainly watchable from beginning to end. But it's too familiar and fatalistic to have much of an impact on this viewer.

James Floyd and Fady Elsayed rivet your attention as older and younger brothers, UK-born of Egyptian parents, who have hopes and, therefore, frustrations living in council-houses London. As with so many young, poor males in that milieu, the only immediate path to some kind of decent income is in the gang activities commonplace in their part of town.

And yet this movie avoids every clichéd turn of plot suggested by the familiar premises of the story. The drama is consistently fresh. The developments, though surprising, are invariably right. This movie will hold your attention and its characters your sympathy from the opening scene to the last blackout.

I'd also mention that a lot of the movie is in closeup so it helps that James Floyd is very easy to look at. The most perfect nose without rhinoplasty I ever saw. Jim Smith

This was a real highlight at Sundance, an incredible movie, has all the grittiness a street film should have, but with real heart. The story is familiar, but Sally El Hosaini's script keeps it fresh by introducing unexpected twists that keep you wanting to find out what's coming next. Without giving any of those twists away, this is basically a film about two brothers and how their relationship changes as the younger one who has always looked up to the elder grows disenchanted with him, while trying to define himself as a man (which he isn't quite yet). Setting that story in the midst of London gang life pushes the poignancy of the story with great effect. Beautiful cinematography by David Raedeker and the outstanding acting of James Floyd and Fady Elsayed make this a real treat.