Former television producer in France, Joel Soler made a 62-minute long documentary, Uncle Saddam, in which he gained access to Iraq President Saddam Hussein's inner circle.
Under the pretext of making a documentary about the sanctions on Iraq, he interviewed family members, government employees, and the architects and designers of Hussein's world. Soler has witnessed and filmed scenes that few Westerners, or even Iraqis, have ever encountered.
According to the London based daily, Al Sharq Al Awsat, the documentary that portrays the Iraqi President will be released on DVD in the United States next week. "Uncle Saddam", made by Soler in 2000, received critical acclaim at international film festivals two years ago and resulted in death threats against Soler at his Los Angeles area home. Soler said he knew he was in trouble at the end of his stay in Iraq after asking too many times to see Saddam’s palaces.
Distributors Xenon Pictures say the timing of the April 2 DVD, which includes an interview with Soler, release during the U.S.-led war raging in Iraq, is mere coincidence.
The film has been shown at the Vancouver Film Festival, the UN film festival and has been praised as "courageous" by David Scheffer, the US Ambassador at large for war crimes issues.
The film begins with the highlights of Hussein's history, such as when, as a precocious 22-year-old, he attempted to kill the Iraqi President. After spending years in and out of favor, he had established himself as "a sort of Kennedy of the Middle East" before seizing power himself.
Uncle Saddam can be neatly divided into two halves, and the first could be called "Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous," as it tours Hussein's personality. The film reveals personal quirks like a phobia of germs so pronounced that he requires visitors to shower before entering his presence. The film's English translation was written by Scott Thompson and narrated by Wallace Langham (both comic actors from HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show").
Uncle Saddam focuses a great deal on Saddam's material holdings, which reveal few deep insights. In architecture alone, Hussein demonstrates hubris on a level that's almost literally Biblical, as in his rebuilding the city of Babylon along with constructing the world's largest mosque.
Only briefly do Saddam's subjects appear on camera. The film's second half looks at Hussein's family tree, identifying the relatives he instituted in his inner circle upon coming into power.
Uncle Saddam includes grim footage of children languishing in Iraqi hospitals, accompanying a critique of the United Nations embargo of the nation. But that's the film's only real geopolitical message, and it otherwise occupies ground in the center.
However, Americans, who were led to believe by President George Bush that Iraq would be a cakewalk with ‘liberated’ Iraqis dancing in the streets to welcome the Anglo-Americans axis troops, are looking askance at reports that the Iraqis are actually holding out. It is evident that the Iraqi people, in their time of crisis, have proven to like Saddam and are now rallying behind him against the US-British aggression.
The heroic resistance of the Iraqi people has stunned the West and the Arab world, and all those who believed the battle would end quickly for the benefit of the US and British armies. It is clear that the Iraqi people, whom they wished to liberate, refuse to accept freedom brought to them by the tanks of the occupation forces. Western policy makers miscalculated their strategy and admitted that the time was ripe for Britain and the US to seek an "honorable" solution in the United Nations. –Albawaba.com
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
