The Devil’s Double is a new film, a fictionalised version of the real-life story of Latif Yahia, who served as the double of Saddam Hussein’s son Uday. Unlike Jona Lewie you will never find Uday Hussein in the kitchens at parties. No sir, this disco meerkat is the life and soul all right, rocking the mike with his fly honeys, a gold AK47 and a Bowie coke mirror. In the 1980s the son of Saddam and his Baghdad massive were kicking it by night and torturing by day. While thousands of his countrymen were giving their lives for his father in the bitter Iran-Iraq war Uday was busy picking out hand made suits to match whichever of his fleet of a 1000 sports cars he chose to drive that day.
Whisked through the desert by twin black Mercs (de-rigueur travel if you’re summoned by a maniac play-boy) is Latif Yahia, an Iraqi officer and former classmate of Uday. Flanked, ushered and intimidated, two sharkskin heavies dump Latif in Uday’s pristine office but Saddam’s heir is absent. A single brilliant red stiletto sits opposite a small photo of Saddam on Uday’s desk-it’s a simple but staggering deep-focus composition that reveals much about Uday’s character and the nefarious dynasty he represents.
Uday lurks out of thin air, a phantom Freddie Mercury haunting the mirror near Latif. The physical resemblance is uncanny but Uday reeks of corruption, the perversion and insanity seeping through his clammy pores, clinging to his Versace fibres, spilling out of his high-pitched voice. This tyrannical Tigger needs a double, a decoy to take the heat off. “We were friends” leers Uday; “Classmates” corrects Latif physically recoiling at the thought. The proposition doesn’t sit well with Latif, but that’s an irrelevance when you’re dealing with the devil.
Having his national fervour beaten into him and his family threatened with Abu Ghraib Latif undergoes plastic surgery to further enhance the illusion. However the reluctant transformation is not complete until Latif can throw a tantrum like a Scud missile strike. This nuance secured Latif relaxes into Uday’s life of supercharged privilege even securing the patronage of Saddam himself, “God is great, he gave me two sons. Now I have three.”
This isn’t the ramshackle Saddam of Operation Red Dawn but the gleaming moustached powerhouse of the 80s who was courted by the Soviet Union, China, France and the United States. Saddam himself has several doubles enabling him to rally his people, fool his enemies and keep his image as a superhuman leader intact. At one point Latif sees Saddam play tennis with his double or is it two doubles playing against each other? These fragmented shots are mesmerising-the schizophrenic relationship both the East and West saw in this dictator.
Worryingly Saddam acts as the barometer of restraint when it comes to Uday-whatever qualifies as restraint in his bloody regime. As Uday’s crimes become ever more heinous, carving up his father Saddam’s personal valet, kidnapping and murdering school girls, raping a bride on her wedding day Latif watches Saddam distance himself from his son. “I should have gelded him at birth” Saddam coldly reasons after beating Uday.
Based partly on Latif Yahia’s life story “The Devil’s Double” is very nearly a great movie. Like Saddam and Uday, director Lee Tamahori blurs fact and fiction making the audience question the real extent of Latif’s involvement in some of Uday’s horrendous actions. Was he really an innocent held to ransom or does he protest too much?
Its an intriguing proposition but one that would have benefited from some fascinating historical context rather than a straightforward catalogue of atrocities. Uday’s conflict with his younger brother Qusay is never fully explored other than through a series of piercing looks and his Hamlet-like relationship with his mother is only given cursory treatment-a chilling scene where they are in bed together.
However “The Devil’s Double” is really Dominic Cooper’s show. As Latif says to Uday, “You want me to extinguish myself” and such is Cooper’s imperious performance he achieves just that losing himself to both men. The British actor’s dual roles of Latif/Uday are masterful, bombastic and subtle. He is at his most impressive when Latif is practising to become Uday, a fantastic insight into the very heart of the acting process itself. On the strength of “The Devil’s Double” Cooper could very well find himself at every A-list party in town.