My brother the devil analysis

My brother the devil is a film written by Sally El Hosaini, who is a female director that won the best European film and Grand Jury award at the BFI London Film Festival in 2012 (the time of the film made). It is a British film, the genre of this film is drama and this is a social realism urban story. The themes that run through this film are family, love, violence, conflict, innocence, religion, revenge and anger. The contrasts of the themes innocence and guilt are portrayed by both the brothers, Mo and Rash, throughout the film.

In the opening scene before the film start it shows pictures of real life men, which suggests that this film is based on a real story. Then the film starts and the first scene shows Rash boxing, which suggests his superiority, leadership qualities and that he is strong. It also shows Mo, the youngest brother, signing his school shirts, which presents his vulnerability, that he is young, and has no acknowledgment of the world, or what is up-coming in the film. After this the images are shown again and one by is pictured with what look like drugs which give us an insight to what these boys lives may be like.

The main scene is focused my review on was when the gangs meet up and attempt to attack each other. Demon, the gang leader of the rival gang shows his authority when the camera focuses on him in this scene. His dog foreshadows the violence of this scene.  The absence of light presents the darkness, gloomy and dangerous atmosphere that is about to happen and the sound is diegetic; all dialogue, but when the dog got stabbed there was also an absence of sound, suggesting this dog was meant to die. Demon screams out and without hesitation stabs, Rash’s best friend, and lies dead on the floor. This scene is powerful as it indicates the death of the gang member and rival dog are the same, that these boys in the gangs are inhumane, treated like dogs and have no life of their own. Rash was the last one to stay and watch his best friend on the floor, eventually ran away, which suggests when he ran was when he hit reality.

When Rash ran away, there was heavy sounds that highlighted his built up feelings of the death of his best friend, including heavy breathing, footsteps and police sirens, including the trains above him as he was under the bridge. The sounds got louder and louder each time and eventually went silent, which connotes that all that sound was from inside of Rash’s head.