The review on my MBTD is that it is a very complex tale with on going that drives the narrative forward which reveals the enigma code which reveals the true background of someone from London with a very macho stereotype...misunderstood. Mo and Rashid are Egyptian brothers who are adhering to stereotypes within east London,a very strict personality is needed in order to get along within the drug world.But due to the brothers being a little different than the others this has caused various social and economic issues within their daily lives,for example Mo being shy has allowed him to become more of a push over than his brother,and due to Rashid being bi sexual this has meant he is currently having a identity crisis. These traits have all been put into the film by Sally El Hosaini and resulted in a captivating tale of death,laughter and anger.

My brother the Devil is the first independent film by British director Sally El Hosani and it explores the gritty reality of gang life and its abhorrent approaches on the LGBT community. My brother the devil follows close blood brothers Mo (Fady Elsayed) and Rasch (James Floyd) and how their differences slowly drive them apart. What is interesting with this drama is that Sally El Hosani was born in Hackney - where this controversial drama is set and her half Egyptian heritage reflects that of the two protagonists.The represented themes that could be deemed most shocking to the audience in this drama are the Muslim and gang approaches to the LGBT community. When Rasch steps down from his position in a local gang in hope of a less chaotic and turbulent lifestyle, he slowly realises his sexuality with fellow ex-gang member Sayyid (Saïd Taghmaoui). When his brother Mo discovers this he is full of disgust and shame and rejects Rasch's relation to him, screaming 'Wish you were never my brother!'. The audience feels forced to watch in contempt as Mo adopt Rasch's previous role in a gang as he begins to run a drug dealing firm, almost in a desperate attempt to re-scramble the sense of masculinity within his family that he feels he lost with Rasch's sexuality. The shocking revelation that follows is that Mo would rather admit to his brother being a terrorist than homosexual, which speaks volumes in how this drama represents the views of LGBT's in gang culture and Islam.My brother the devil is shockingly poignant and an impressive first entry by documentary director Sally El Hosani which provides a hard hitting narrative on sensitive themes. It depicts how familial love can be broken down by a clash of conservative views and modern reality.

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.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningRashid (James Floyd) is caught up with street gangs in inner city London, and runs in to a feud with another rival gang when his younger brother Mo (Fady Elsayed) is robbed by them while running an errand for Rashid's crew. But when his best friend is killed in a retaliation attack instigated by Rashid, he is forced to try and come to terms with his life and turn it around, while facing up to his own inner demons. Meanwhile, young Mo is forced to face some harsh rites of passage choices of his own.Just when it seemed like it had been a while, Sally El Hosani comes along with a new gritty British urban drama to shake the genre back up a bit. Little seen but critically hailed, it's lesser budget not holding it back at all, My Brother the Devil is an undeniably impressive but overlong and maybe even slightly over rated offering that is maybe guilty of over ambition in it's scope.Basing it's story at the centre of a bustling immigrant community in the sprawling metropolis of London, the film lifts the rafters on what has probably become a pretty typical, archetypal landscape setting for many parts of the capital, or even the country as a whole. It opens a rough, unpredictable world with danger at every corner and the price of life disturbingly cheap. In this it manages what many other films of it's type have already done, and in an above average way, but it loses it's way in a sea of complex, challenging sub plots that seem to be aiming for higher gasp factor as it goes on. Somehow, the central narrative loses it's structure a bit, while the performances and writing remain spot on. Still, if all the cogs in the engine aren't working, someone'll notice.This is an undeniably ambitious, well acted, daring, effectively shot, depressingly realistic and smartly written piece that doesn't deserve to have all those qualities ignored, but maybe got a little too above it's station and fell down from a spellbinding height. ***