My Brother the Islamist
Rich Leech grew up white, middle-class, and English, then converted to Islam, changed his name to Salahuddin al-Britani, and started campaigning for Sharia law in Britain, aligning himself with jihadist fundamentalists. His step-brother Robb Leech, a tree surgeon who picked up a camera, sets out to understand what happened, filming Salahuddin at protests, in mosques, and in the family conversations that keep breaking down over what he now believes. The camera stays close and personal rather than analytical: this is one brother trying to reach another, not a policy documentary about extremism. Salahuddin explains his position in his own words, including his view that Britain should live under religious law, while Robb pushes back as a sibling rather than an interviewer. The film does not resolve the disagreement. What it shows instead is a family absorbing a conversion that has pulled one member toward a worldview the rest find alien, and a filmmaker choosing to keep filming his brother rather than walk away from him.