My Brother The Devil (UK)

Delivering an alternately striking and realistic vision of gangland London, My Brother the Devil, is an excellent film.  A coming-of-age journey with bold, memorable characters, vision and style, the film leaves you wanting more. Gay story set in a Muslim context is not always to depict and very few film makers have been successfully able to do that. This film is definitely a step ahead in that regard.

Rashid and Mohammed are of Egypt origin and are brothers living in London now. Elder brother Rashid (Rash) is on streets and deals with drugs etc. to make extra cash. The brothers are pretty close and Mohamed (or Mo) knows about it. They both hang out with street boys. In a gang war, Rashid's best buddy Izzy gets killed. Izzy was very close to Rashid and Rash is now forced to reevaluate egis life and wonder if what his father and mother always said was true or not. Mo is slowly growing up and wants to be exactly like his brother. But the change in hi brother's attitude stars bothering him a lot. Rash meets Sayeed, a photographer whom he had visited with Izzy once. Sayeed was a former gang member and has now cleaned up his life. Izzy always wanted tp get out of streets and loo for decent job and now Rash wants out and get a job. Sayeed gives him a job and they slowly become friends. Rash even invites him home for dinner. Mo doesn't like him at all. In a chance encounter Sayeed kisses Rash and he completely freaks out. He sleeps with his girlfriend but can't get Sayeed out of his mind. He finally gives in and they both start hanging out a lot more. Mo doesn't like this one bit. He meets the other gang members and starts ealing drugs himself for extra money. One day he follows Rashid and finds out about him and Sayeed. He is shocked and disgusted and starts spreading rumor of how Rash may be involved in terrorism because he can't tell them the real story. When Rashid finds out about Mo in the gang, he orders him to stay away and also warns the gang to keep his brother out of it. Complications arise and when news spread that Mo is gay, his gang members wanna kill him but accidentally they shoot Mo. While in hospital, Rashid's parents want him to come back home saying they can him 'fixed' but he refuses. Finally he comes back home to visit Mo, who is now cool and ok with Rash being gay and he knows better to not get involved with the gangs anymore.

The accent in the film was so strong that many a times it was very difficult to understand what they were talking. I could beta hang of few words here and there and make out the rest. The story is interesting and very relevant since it is set in an Arabic setting in UK. The gangs and the living conditions of people are very real IMO and the production quality and the direction is very good. Rashid and Mo act really really well. The bonding that the 2 brothers share and slowly, the same brother, whom Mo idolizes starts disgusting him; the build up is really well done. Both the brothers have acted superbly. Rashid looks really really handsome too. His character of a man struggling internally and with the world around him has been portrayed with utmost conviction. Mo's character is also real but not cowardly. His actions and decisions, though not the best are understandable given the situation he puts himself in. Even the gay angle has been handled very sensitively. It is never used to tiilate the audience and everything is left to viewer's imagination.

This movie will hold your attention and its characters your sympathy from the opening scene to the last blackout. (7/10)