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What it's about:
Summoned from the frontline to Saddam Hussein's palace, Iraqi army lieutenant Latif Yahia (Dominic Cooper) is thrust into the highest echelons of the "royal family" when he's ordered to become the 'fiday' - or body double - to Saddam's son, the notorious "Black Prince" Uday Hussein (also Dominic Cooper), a reckless, sadistic party-boy with a rabid hunger for sex and brutality. With his and his family's lives at stake, Latif must surrender his former self forever as he learns to walk, talk and act like Uday. But nothing could have prepared him for the horror of the Black Prince's psychotic, drug-addled life of fast cars, easy women and impulsive violence.
What the critics thought:
"This isn't exactly a complex study of Iraqi history, but director Lee Tamahori punches it across, and the Stalinesque use of doubles in Iraq is interesting."
- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
"This is a breakthrough star performance from a terrific actor, Dominic Cooper, getting a chance to let it rip. Just don't expect a docudrama."
- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"The movie is provocative but rarely thought-provoking, and it stops short of any startling psychological or political insight."
- A.O. Scott, New York Times
Summoned from the frontline to Saddam Hussein's palace, Iraqi army lieutenant Latif Yahia (Dominic Cooper) is thrust into the highest echelons of the "royal family" when he's ordered to become the 'fiday' - or body double - to Saddam's son, the notorious "Black Prince" Uday Hussein (also Dominic Cooper), a reckless, sadistic party-boy with a rabid hunger for sex and brutality. With his and his family's lives at stake, Latif must surrender his former self forever as he learns to walk, talk and act like Uday. But nothing could have prepared him for the horror of the Black Prince's psychotic, drug-addled life of fast cars, easy women and impulsive violence.
What the critics thought:
"This isn't exactly a complex study of Iraqi history, but director Lee Tamahori punches it across, and the Stalinesque use of doubles in Iraq is interesting."
- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
"This is a breakthrough star performance from a terrific actor, Dominic Cooper, getting a chance to let it rip. Just don't expect a docudrama."
- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"The movie is provocative but rarely thought-provoking, and it stops short of any startling psychological or political insight."
- A.O. Scott, New York Times
