Coming soon will be Hollywood's semi-fictional account of Iraqi playboy, socialite and all round psychopath Uday Hussein in The Devil's Double. We have all heard the stories about how twisted and sadistic Saddam Hussein’s son was meant to be. Stories of his decadent lifestyle punctuated by wild sex and even wilder violence have become almost apocryphal in a legendary sense, and thus makes good fodder for the latest Hollywood movie featuring an on-going Iraqi crisis.
Based on Latif Yahya's book I Was Saddam's Son
(or more directly The Devil's Double
), the movie adaptation stars Dominic Cooper in the lead roles of Uday Hussein and Latif Yahya - the enslaved body double. Ignoring the already growing controversy of the hiring of a white actor for the principle roles and the scripting of the movie in mainly English and not Arabic, The Devil's Double already looks set to be the Arabian equivalent of Scarface
; a notion which is controversial in itself as it may inevitably paint Uday as an anti-hero, hero.
(or more directly The Devil's Double), the movie adaptation stars Dominic Cooper in the lead roles of Uday Hussein and Latif Yahya - the enslaved body double. Ignoring the already growing controversy of the hiring of a white actor for the principle roles and the scripting of the movie in mainly English and not Arabic, The Devil's Double already looks set to be the Arabian equivalent of Scarface; a notion which is controversial in itself as it may inevitably paint Uday as an anti-hero, hero. Now in his 40's Latif Yahya (not related to me btw) is a highly educated doctor and controversial blogger who was forced to become Uday Hussein's body double at the age of 23. His biographies The Devil's Double and The Black Hole
details in a very tabloid but explicit manner his life as a man hired to make public appearances in the guise of Uday whenever a dangerous situation was expected. When Yahya initially objected to the job, he was arrested and held in harsh conditions until he capitulated, where upon he went under several months of training to become more like Uday in both speech and mannerisms. He also underwent extensive surgery to fix any 'flaws' that may have revealed his true identity. His controversial book is perhaps one of the most unsettling written as it shows the low levels of depravity Uday had sunk to. His account included stories of torture that will make scenes from the Saw
movies look tame, as well as the gruesome and often bloody sexual torture of women and girls as young as 12.
and The Black Hole details in a very tabloid but explicit manner his life as a man hired to make public appearances in the guise of Uday whenever a dangerous situation was expected. When Yahya initially objected to the job, he was arrested and held in harsh conditions until he capitulated, where upon he went under several months of training to become more like Uday in both speech and mannerisms. He also underwent extensive surgery to fix any 'flaws' that may have revealed his true identity. His controversial book is perhaps one of the most unsettling written as it shows the low levels of depravity Uday had sunk to. His account included stories of torture that will make scenes from the Saw movies look tame, as well as the gruesome and often bloody sexual torture of women and girls as young as 12. Judging by the trailer, the movie retelling of his life looks like it will be your standard ultra-violent Hollywood treatment of real life events, so whether the film will be as dark and as brutal as Yahya's own account I have yet to see. The film was recently shown at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival to overwhelmingly positive reviews; however there were reports of some audience members walking out during its showing due to the graphic nature of some scenes.
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