The Devil's Double

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Movie
German title The Devil's Double
Original title The Devil's Double
Country of production Belgium / Netherlands
original language English
Publishing year 2011
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Lee Tamahori
script Michael Thomas
production Paul Breuls ,
Michael John Fedun ,
Emjay Rechsteiner ,
Catherine Vandeleene
music Christian Henson
camera Sam McCurdy
cut Luis Carballar
occupation

The Devil's Double is a feature film from 2011. It is based on the autobiography The Devil's Double by Iraqi Latif Yahia . He had claimed to have been a doppelganger of Uday Hussein , the son of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein . Thefilm premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival .

action

Latif Yahia is a young patriotic Iraqi serving as a soldier in the First Gulf War . Saddam Hussein , who started this war with the help of the US by invading Iran , rules Iraq with an iron fist. One day in 1987, Latif was taken to Baghdad by intelligence officials , where he met Udai Hussain. Latif went to school with him and Udai remembered him because he looked very much like him. Like all members of the leadership clique, Udai is afraid of assassinations and is looking for a doppelganger. He offers Latif to work as his doppelganger and always to be close by. Latif has to cut off all old contacts, including those with his family. When Latif refuses, he is tortured and Udai's colleague Munim announces to him that Latif's family will be murdered if he opposes again. Latif agrees. Munim shows the horrified Latif torture videos: Udai, who is responsible for the Ministry of Sports, has unsuccessful Iraqi athletes brutally tortured if they fail to perform as they want. Munim warns Latif not to approach women that Udai wants for herself. Udai leads a decadent life and leaves nothing out: parties, women, drugs and excesses of violence determine his life. Latif is not lacking in material goods, but he is repulsed by the life of Udai. Occasionally Udai drives through the streets and collects girls and women he likes, who are then seduced or raped by him. Shortly before the Kuwait War , Latif is almost murdered by an opposition activist. Udai attends a party in honor of Suzanne Mubarak . A school girl he kidnapped is present there. At the party, he clashes with Kamel Hana Gegeo , a close friend of his father's. As a friend of his father's, he is actually inviolable even for Udai. Nevertheless, the dispute escalates so much that Udai Kamel murders in front of the party guests. The kidnapped schoolgirl is also later beaten to death by Udai.

After the Iraqi defeat in Kuwait , the Americans call on the Iraqi people to resist. The Shiites in the south and the Kurds in the north follow the request, but are then abandoned by the Americans. The Americans had also allowed Saddam to withdraw the Republican Guard from Kuwait, which is now brutally suppressing the uprisings. Latif is sent to Basra to counter insurgency . There Latif is almost murdered again. After Udai calls on Latif to kill the father of the murdered schoolgirl, Latif and Udai's lover Sarrab flee to La Valletta , Malta . Sarrab calls Udai and asks for mercy. Udai also speaks to Latif and tells him to return or he will murder his father. Latif refuses and his father is murdered. The film ends with a mention that Latif lives in hiding and probably settled in Ireland, and that Udai was killed when the US conquered Iraq.

production

The film was shot in Jordan and Malta .

synchronization

actor role German speaker
Dominic Cooper Latif Yahia / Uday Hussein Alexander Doering
Ludivine Sagnier Sarrab Anne Helm
Philip Quast Saddam Hussein Helmut Gauss
Mimoun Oaïssa Ali Youssef El-Sidani
Raad Rawi Munim Kaspar Eichel
Mem Ferda Camel hannah Christian Gaul
Dar Salim Azzam Al-Tikriti
Khalid Laith Yassem Al-Helou Tommy Morgenstern
Pano Masti Said Kammuneh
Wet Memarzia Latif's father Rudiger Evers
Tiziana Azzopardi Lafit's sister
Akin Gazi Saleeh
Amrita Acharia School girl Lisa May-Mitsching
Selva Rasalingam Rokan Tim Moeseritz

criticism

The criticism was mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes 52% positive reviews are listed.

Czieslik from CzazzCritics wrote that the film was "deep through interposed, real visual material", but it disrupted the "flow of the plot". On the other hand, he described the performance of the actors as "impressive, as the viewer can really analyze facial expressions in tense situations". He particularly emphasized that Dominic Cooper represented "two solid characters who have similarities - thus appear authentic - but still have such a different character that the viewer may forget during the film that both are played by an actor" .

background

Journalists Eoin Butler of the Irish Times and Ed Caesar of the Sunday Times question the credibility of Yahia and his entire biography. Butler interviewed Yahia in 2007 and 2011 as well as numerous people who lived in Iraq during the Saddam regime. Quite a few of these people denied that Saddam or Udai Hussein used doubles.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lionsgate and Herrick Take on The Devil's Double . In: CominSoon , CraveOnline , February 3, 2011. Retrieved July 5, 2011. 
  2. ↑ Updated: Iraq movie being filmed in Malta. Times of Malta, March 12, 2010, accessed July 30, 2014 .
  3. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | The Devil's Double. Retrieved February 19, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Summary of the reviews on Rottentomatoes (Eng.)
  5. ↑ CzazzCritics, issue 48, week 48
  6. ↑ a b Ed Caesar: The Double Dealer . In: The Sunday Times , January 23, 2011. Archived from the original on April 26, 2012 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved January 14, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.edcaesar.co.uk 
  7. ↑ Eoin Butler: The Tangled Tale behind The Devil's Double . In: The Guardian , August 13, 2011. Retrieved January 14, 2012.