My Brother The Devil Analysis

My Brother The Devil is a social realism drama film which was produced on the 9^th November 2012 in the UK and filmed in Hackney, London. It was directed and written by Sally El Hosaini who is also known for her work on Green Zone and The Fifth Bowl. It was produced by Julia Godzinskaya, Gayle Griffiths and Michael Sackler. The film has a running time of 111 minutes and it has been classified as a fifteen due to sex, nudity, violence, gore, profanity, alcohol, drugs and smoking. My Brother The Devil stars James Floyd (Rashid- the older brother), Fady Elsayed (Mo- the younger brother), Anthony Welsh (Izzi), Amira Ghazalla (Hanan) and Saïd Taghmaoui (Sayyid). 

My Brother The Devil is about two brothers, Rashid and Mo, who are British Arabs being brought up by an Egyptian family and the effect that crime and gangs have on their relationship. Mo looks up to and respects Rashid however Rashid does not want Mo to follow in his footsteps and would prefer him to focus on his education because Rashid leads a gang and finds himself caught up into the world of drug-dealing.; a situation he does not want his younger brother to be involved in. Despite this, Mo ignores Rashid’s requests and also becomes a drug dealer as well as becoming under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

The narrative of this film fits in well with Robert McKee’s theory, named ‘story’, which states that a narrative consists of five main stages: inciting incident, progressive complication, crisis, climax and resolution. The inciting incident in my brother the devil is when Mo gets threatened by Demon and his gang and ends up having his shoes stolen from them. It is from this point that the film begins to truly develop because it causes conflict between Rashid’s and Demon’s gangs meaning the life of the main protagonists is changing in order for them to adapt to the plot. The progressive complication would be when Mo catches sight of Demon’s gang outside a local newsagent and in desperation, calls Rashid because he is in fear that he will be spotted and get attacked by them. This leads to Rashid and his gang confronting Demon’s gang and an intense fight breaks out almost immediately. The crisis occurs when Rashid’s best friend, Izzi gets stabbed during this fight and very sadly ends up passing away. I believe that this scene was purposely used in order to show to the audience the brutal realities of gang crime and the impact it can have on someone’s life, even when they least expect it. The film reaches a terrifying climax very close to the end when Rashid wants to get revenge on Demon’s gang, using a gun, and Mo accidently gets shot in the shoulder. This shocked Rashid to a great extent as he realised how close he was to losing his only brother so he makes the decision that everything has to change and he must re-think his actions. The resolution occurs when Mo and Rashid talk to each other alone, resulting in their friendship being restored and both of them having more peace and stability in their life.

Todorov’s narrative structure theory also fits in well with the narrative of my brother the devil. His theory also has five stages which are: equilibrium, disruption, realisation, repair and return. The equilibrium is when Rashid is congratulating Mo on his exam results and encouraging him to continue with his studies; there are no current conflicts between the two main gangs.  The disruption is when Mo gets his shoes stolen from him. It is after this event that the fight occurs between Rashid’s and Demon’s gangs which leads to the death of Izzi. Rashid then comes to the realisation that what he is doing is wrong so begins to have a re-think on how he should be spending his life. The situation is repaired when Rashid meets a photographer named Sayyid and begins to work for him. However, the narrative structure returns to a disruption when Rashid has a sexual awakening and when Mo discovers this, he realises that he has to face his own fears in order to protect Rashid and himself. This however, does not lead to the return of a new equilibrium and instead results in another disruption which is when Mo gets shot in the shoulder. The realisation of this is when Rashid understands that what he is doing is wrong and that there must be a change. Rashid repairs the disruption of the equilibrium by talking to Mo alone which leads to balance and peace being restored within the family therefore meaning the narrative has returned to a new equilibrium.

There is a wide variety of very strong themes displayed throughout this film which are: family, friendship, protection, control, violence, crime, hate, love, lust, betrayal and revenge. The themes of family, friendship, love and hate are the most obvious and they are clearly shown between Mo and Rashid because although they have a big fall out in the film and claim to hate one another (“I wish you weren’t my brother”), they still love and care for each other nonetheless and at the end, they become friends again. Protection and control is shown through Rashid because he does not want Mo to lead the same life as he does and therefore demands him to focus purely on his studies. Protection is displayed when Mo frantically calls Rashid when he spots Demon and his gang outside a shop. Rashid drives to where Mo is extremely quickly and confronts Demon in order to reduce the chances of Mo getting attacked. Violence and crime are expressed throughout the entire film during events such as gang fights and drug dealing. I believe that betrayal and revenge are two of the most important themes because they play a very big part in the plot. Mo feels as if he has been betrayed by Rashid when he rethinks his life plans after Izzi passed away and begins to work for Sayyid. It is this disruption and realisation that eventually leads to Mo coming very close to death. Revenge is shown when Rashid wants the final act of violence between Demon’s gang and his own and decides to use a gun to do so. It is this act of revenge that also leads to Mo being shot meaning that without the themes of betrayal and revenge, the plot would not have been able to reach that unexpected climax.

Mise-En-Scene was used effectively in order to create an urban environment which is very rough. The characters lived in an estate and this was clearly shown by the many establishing shots of towering, crowded flats. The flats were crowded and very close together to represent how the brothers, no matter how hard they tried, could not escape the crime that surrounded them and they constantly found themselves involved in situations such as gang fights.  The small details such as graffiti on the walls enhanced the idea that the characters lived in a rough, run-down area and the characters would quite often be seen wearing costumes such as hoodies in order to blend in, stay out of the way and keep a low profile at times when they did not want to be easily noticed. Additionally, the protagonists having to live a life surrounded by crime and violence was highlighted by the use of props which included weapons such as knives and guns and other props such as alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. Mo felt pressurised to make use of these props in order to ‘fit in’ and be just like his older brother.

The cinematography was absolutely outstanding and the beautiful still shots made Hackney seem like a better place than it really is, possibly to represent how the protagonists wanted a better life for themselves. However, these still shots were almost tilted and not perfectly straight to represent how neither of the protagonist’s lives were completely stable. There were also a lot of moving shots, for example, when a character drank some alcohol, the camera would move upwards as they tilted the bottle upwards, which made the sequence more realistic and also more interesting to watch. I noticed that at times, slow motion camera action was used which allows the audience to see the action that is taking place in more detail. The frequent over the shoulder shots meant the audience could feel more involved with what was happening and during fight scenes, point of view shots were used which enabled the audience to be put in the characters shoes in order to feel as if they were actually there. The use of low angle shots showed that the character had power and dominance and therefore is in control and is more superior than the other character(s) who is in turn portrayed as weaker and more vulnerable.

The use of lighting was very effective throughout my brother the devil. Firstly, dark lighting was used when a character was trying to be secretive, for example, in the scene where Rashid sneaks a girl into the house at night to have sexual intercourse with her, the lighting is very dark and this is to represent how he does not want anyone in the house to see them which in turn, conveys mystery. Also, I noticed that when Mo and Rashid are together at the beginning and end of the film, the lighting is brighter than it is during the scenes in which they have fallen out. This is to symbolise their friendship as brothers and that when they are together, they immediately feel safer and much happier; this bright lighting is not used so often during the scenes in which they have fallen out to represent how their relationship has been torn apart.

I believe that non-diagetic sound was used very creatively in order to create meaning. Music was used to fit the tone of the atmosphere which in turn helped to make it more believable, for example, dramatic music was used during intense scenes to leave the audience on the edge of their seats, wondering what was going to happen next. A scene I clearly remember that used sound artistically was when Mo asked Hanan what music she was listening to and she gave him the headphones to listen for himself. When he put the headphones on, the music that the audience could previously hear very quietly became a lot louder and the surrounding sounds were muted out. This meant the audience were put in Mo’s shoes and therefore were able to hear what he could hear, making the scene more realistic and life-like. Additionally, throughout the film I could often hear police sirens in the background which emphasizes how Hackney is a very rough area with extremely high crime rates.

The performances were excellent because they were very natural so did not seem forced at all. They were all extremely powerful meaning it was easy for the audience to engage with each character, especially the main protagonists, Mo and Rashid, who Fady Elsayed and James Floyd did a brilliant job of playing. I have not seen Elsayed and Floyd act in any other films apart from my brother the devil so I was not expecting such outstanding performances to which there was very little fault.

From near to the middle of the film and onwards, the plot developed strongly and it became clear that Mo and Rashid were going opposite ways in their lives; parallel editing was used to show this. There were certain scenes that showed what the two brothers were doing at the same time via parallel editing in order to show their different stories and also to represent how although they have been torn apart, they still think about one another constantly. The use of parallel editing was very clever because it created intensity and added more creativity and interest to the scenes it was used in.

I think that the film is called ‘my brother the devil’ because Mo did not obey Rashid’s request which was to focus purely on his education and to not get involved with gangs, drugs and alcohol therefore, he was being rebellious so is being referred to as a ‘devil’.  Overall, I really enjoyed my brother the devil because it is a gritty film with miraculous cinematography, stunning performances and strong themes. Each character was very well developed and I was kept intrigued the whole way though; an outstanding film that I would highly recommend to anyone.