My brother the devil
My Brother the Devil
One of the unwritten rules of cinema is that, if a story features two brothers, one must be good and the other bad. It’s a trope that can be far too predictable, but in My Brother
the Devil, there’s a nice little flip that happens halfway through, meaning it’s not exactly clear who the more dastardly sibling is.
Welsh-egyptian director Sally el Hosaini is to credit for this nuance, all the more impressive considering its her film-making debut. She introduces us first to Mo (Fady Elsayed), a teenager living in the high-density, ’60s-era apartment blocks of Hackney in London’s east end with his working-class parents and older brother Rashid (James Floyd). Mo does what he’s told, likes to rap in his spare time, maintains an innocent crush on his new neighbour and is usually seen wearing pink.
Rashid is part of a gang and acts like it; he deals drugs, gets into fights and occasionally pushes around his younger brother. There are hints, though, that he isn’t so onedimensional: He slips money into his mother’s wallet, he refuses to fire a gun at a kid and it becomes clear he’s only distancing himself from Mo in order to prevent another member of his family from being sucked into a life of crime.
To complicate matters, each is hiding a secret from the other, and what’s left unsaid is what comes to unravel them both. Viewers will go from wanting these two to hug and make up to truly hoping their paths stop crossing, for everyone’s benefit. Perhaps as a way of easing the tension, el Hosaini gives us repeated breaks from the action with long, motionless establishing shots of Hackney’s cramped apartment buildings — shot by David Raedeker, they feel almost like stills worthy of their own gallery exhibit, taken at curious angles, framed ever so carefully and bathed in just the right light.
The attention el Hosaini gives to the physical structures in this neighbourhood is a poignant reminder of the lack of focus there generally is on the people who live inside them, and it sends a strong message that even the ugliest things can reveal a certain beauty if seen in the right light.