Doing a big summer clean-up I decided to get rid of a huge pile of old issues of UK film mag Empire. Making notes of titles that sounded interesting in the soon to be gone issues,I noticed this film being praised for being different to other "urban" Drama's. Caught by surprised, I was happy to see it was about to be shown on the BBC,which led to me meeting the devilish brothers.
View on the film:
Depressingly looking like it could have been filmed this year, writer/director Sally El Hosaini & cinematographer David Raedeker craft an intense, on the street reporting atmosphere, following each gang member stomping on their turf of rotting flats and side streets where huddled yoofs can pull out a knife to kill you in an instance. Filmed on location in Hackney, London, Hosaini stylishly uses hand-held cameras to shove the viewer by the walls of the cramped family home, where Rash and Mo's emotions boil over.
Bringing a feeling of brotherly love out of their troubled surroundings,James Floyd and Fady Elsayed give electrifying performances as Mo and Rash,with each of them pushing and pulling the other ones frustrations over the life of grime they are stuck in, whilst Saïd Taghmaoui nicely hits a note of calm as friend Sayyid. While the look of the movie and the performances successfully aim for something new in the "urban" Drama genre,the screenplay by Hosaini spends the first half playing the usual notes of the brothers having to survive rubbing shoulders with the various thugs on the streets. Closing in on things the brothers don't tell each other, Hosaini keeps the traditional urban flavour burning, whilst going for a more touchingly low-key examination of a brother being such a devil.
View on the film:
Depressingly looking like it could have been filmed this year, writer/director Sally El Hosaini & cinematographer David Raedeker craft an intense, on the street reporting atmosphere, following each gang member stomping on their turf of rotting flats and side streets where huddled yoofs can pull out a knife to kill you in an instance. Filmed on location in Hackney, London, Hosaini stylishly uses hand-held cameras to shove the viewer by the walls of the cramped family home, where Rash and Mo's emotions boil over.
Bringing a feeling of brotherly love out of their troubled surroundings,James Floyd and Fady Elsayed give electrifying performances as Mo and Rash,with each of them pushing and pulling the other ones frustrations over the life of grime they are stuck in, whilst Saïd Taghmaoui nicely hits a note of calm as friend Sayyid. While the look of the movie and the performances successfully aim for something new in the "urban" Drama genre,the screenplay by Hosaini spends the first half playing the usual notes of the brothers having to survive rubbing shoulders with the various thugs on the streets. Closing in on things the brothers don't tell each other, Hosaini keeps the traditional urban flavour burning, whilst going for a more touchingly low-key examination of a brother being such a devil.