FILM: My Brother the Devil (15)

Writer-director Sally El Hosaini makes an assured debut with this sensitively handled coming-of-age story, shot on location in Hackney during the riots, which transformed areas of the capital into a flame-scorched battlezone.

Fady Elsayed plays wayward teenager Mo, who idolises his older brother Rashid (James Floyd) and seems destined to stumble down the same path of low-level criminality.

A shocking discovery drives a wedge between the siblings, igniting a powder keg of raw emotion that drives El Hosaini’s film to its grim if somewhat predictable resolution.

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The intelligent script complements committed performances from the leads, while David Raedecker’s cinematography captures both the beauty and squalor of London’s concrete jungle of crime-riddled streets and rundown housing estates.

Released: November 9 (UK, selected cinemas), 111 mins

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