My Brother the Devil

‘My Brother the Devil’ is a film set around the gangland of London; it is based around a family (more specifically two brothers) of British Arabs and the gang that the oldest son (late 20’s) is in. The film tackles multiple prejudices at once as the movie focuses on gang culture, youth culture, religion and homosexuality. The film does a good job of humanizing the two main brothers in the film by immediately showing how the older brother (Rash) wants his younger brother (Mo) to go on from school and do better things with his good GCSE results; which defies the regular stereotype of ‘hoodies’ being unintelligent. 

The film highlights how Rash is only in the gang in order to provide a better life for Mo and his family by actively trying to stop Mo from being around other gang members and sneaking money into his mother’s purse; the film also shows how hard it is for these ‘hoodies’ or lower class people to get proper jobs to provide for themselves, as one of the former gang members goes to a job interview and is laughed out the building for not having any references. The film therefore does a good job of representing how hard it can be for these people to find a proper job and therefore subverts the stereotype that ‘hoodies’ choose not to go to a proper job and that it is their choice to live a life of crime. The film also tackles the subject of sexuality as Rash discovers that he is a homosexuality; Mo later finds out about this and is so ashamed that he would rather tell people that his brother is a terrorist. This really emphasizes how awful the homophobia is on the streets of London; the homophobia escalates to the point of Rash’s former gang setting him up by telling him to go kill a rival gang leader in order for the gang to stop talking to Mo (again showing Rash’s willingness to care for his brother), but it is actually a ploy to kill him because of his sexuality. The film is telling the audience that many gang members are unwillingly in a position that they cannot get out of, and the film really highlights how easy it can be for someone to be manipulated into joining. The film also helps the audience empathize with Rash by including his homosexuality, which shows how hard life can be for lower class citizens, the film is therefore trying to change people’s stereotypical opinion on ‘hoodies’ and youths.