Friday, 16 November 2012
Hackney Citizen Review
Tracing the relationship between two brothers of Egyptian descent, Rashid (James Floyd) and Mo (Fady Elsayed) who live in a cramped flat with their traditionally-minded parents, My Brother… takes many startling turns that transcend the average ‘social realism’ genre film.
El Hosaini, who has been a resident of Hackney for ten years, speaks in measured tones about her project. “It’s been six years making the film. I thought the film would be a micro-budget so I’d have to set it on the council estate where I live.”
The film’s intelligence, plot dynamics, and subtlety of characters lift it above similar portrayals of ‘gritty’ estates.
El Hosaini concurs: “A lot of the urban films that I see are phoney. Just because a film is set on an estate, it doesn’t have to be grim, depressing and one-dimensional. I wanted to show another side to Hackney – there are blue skies in the film.”
She admits that she was initially hesitant in her approach to the material: “when I first set out to write this film, I felt sort of like a fraud. But I really got into great lengths to know the people.”
For preparation before shooting started, “I hung out with the kind of boys that you see in the film…I got to know a lot of gangs. With James Floyd, he’s a middle-class kid from Finchley, but he spent five months immersed in the role, learning the language. And for Mo [Elsayed], he’s from Hackney and this was his first time acting.”
The authentic feel to the film extends to the fact that, according to El Hosaini, “ninety-five per cent of the film is set in Hackney. A lot of the cast and crew are from Hackney. A lot of the kids from the estate are actually in the film.”
Indeed, a rapport developed between the film crew and locals during shooting: “The whole community really embraced the film and allowed us to film there. They set up a cinema club with my producers after we’d left. The first screening was the film. They screened it in their community hall – that’s a regular thing now where they have monthly cinema nights. So that was a really nice thing to leave behind as a legacy.”
More surprising still is the presence of Saïd Taghmaoui, famous previously for his role in Mathieu Kassovitz’s seminal 1995 film La Haine, set on a housing project in one of Paris’ blighted banlieues. Taghmaoui’s appearance in My Brother… – as a Parisian of Arab origin transplanted to London, where he runs an upmarket photo studio – turns Rashid and Mo’s life upside-down, and leads to one of the film’s most surprising twists.
El Hosaini got to know the actor whilst working with him on the BBC series The House of Saddam. She admits that “I wrote that part for him, and I told him that I wanted him to be in this film. I loved La Haine and I wrote the character for him.”
El Hosaini – who grew up in the Egyptian capital Cairo but moved to her birthplace Wales when she was 16 – is effusive about her adopted borough: “Of all the places I’ve lived in London, I feel most at home in Hackney. I like the diversity of everything – shopping in the Turkish supermarkets with Middle-Eastern food. There’s just more colour in Hackney – it reminds me of Cairo, the sense of community.”
Yet she is ambivalent about the relentless gentrification of the area: “There are some estates near me that have been knocked down and turned into luxury flats. Hackney is changing – you just look at the skyline and all the cranes. There is new Hackney and old Hackney; there are these bubbles where people co-exist but never really intertwine.”
She is more upbeat when considering the impact that the film has had so far: “By the end of the year, it’ll have been received at forty film festivals around the world. It’s a 100 per cent indie film; we’re not backed by any huge bodies. Ultimately it’s a low-budget film, so it’s amazing how well we’re doing. A filmmaker hopes that they can connect to an audience. You just kind of make it hoping that people will relate to it.”
My Brother the Devil is on general release nationwide from today, Friday 9 November.
Sources:
http://hackneycitizen.co.uk/2012/11/09/my-brother-the-devil-film-sally-el-hosaini-interview/
Monday, 12 November 2012
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Friday, 9 November 2012
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
TOO HOTT!! Win a night in skyfall film location
Win a stay in a ‘Skyfall’ film location
The pool at the Four Seasons Hotel London at Canary Wharf hits the big screen this week, acting as a hotel in Shanghai in the 23rd Bond film, with Daniel Craig in those trunks (pictured). To celebrate the release of Skyfall, we are giving away a Bond-themed overnight stay at the hotel.The prize includes a one-night stay, including breakfast, for two people in a deluxe river-facing room, and a three-course dinner with a bottle of wine recommended by the hotel's sommelier at Italian restaurant Quadrato. The winner will also learn to shake a Vesper Martini at a cocktail-making masterclass, and can watch any of the 22 Bond films they choose on DVD in the deluxe room.
Sunday, 4 November 2012
Skyfall - Omega Synergy.
Daniel Craig has once assumed the role of the world's favorite secret agent. And once again, James Bond is wearing an Omega Seamaster. To celebrate it seventh performance in a supporting role in a Bond film, OMEGA created the Seamaster Planet ocean 600 M Skyfall Limited Edition watch.
007 - James Bond ' THE MOST DANGEROUSLY SOPHISTICATED FRAGRANCE IN THE WORLD' .
A limited edition celebrating 50 years.
Saturday, 3 November 2012
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Unlock the 007 in you. You have 70 seconds!
Skyfall- Coca cola Synergy Gets over 7,000,000 views on Youtube alone.
Unlock The 007 In You. Coke Zero Commercial.
Skyfall - Coca Cola Synergy with over 300,000 hits on Youtube alone.
Behind the Scenes, Over 8000 hits on Youtube.
Skyfall James Bond 007 | underwater featurette (2012) Daniel Craig.
Heineken Beer Synergy.
Most can't imagine James Bond drinking anything other than his signature vodka martini 'shaken not stirred' However this Internationally known mystery of a man is going to be sipping Heineken.
Skyfall Slaps Harry Potter after 007 days.
Skyfall continues record-breaking Box Office, sets seven-day U.K record and passes Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
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