Saddam's Tribe

Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter Raghad watches television in Iran, seeing the famous images of her father being pulled from his hiding place by US soldiers. She thinks back to her days in Iraq when Saddam was still in power, with his family and closest advisors all around him. However, within this close tribe, family pressures and the ambition of Raghad's unbalanced brother Uday starts to destabilise the whole Government.

There is no shortage of films about Iraq and Saddam. OK not all of them are that great but many of them are very good, in particular I have seen several topic specific documentaries about Iraq that were insightful and shocking. So, one has to wonder why many of them are sneaked out on BBC4 while channel 4 chose to give this drama a prime slot on a Thursday night and lots of publicity. Why do I say this? It is not that the film lacks material that offers interest because it does. The inner workings of Saddam's government and the nature of his family is interesting "backstory" if you will into a much bigger global situation and this is why I tuned in to watch, but sadly it is the delivery of this potential where it all falls down.

The script is the root of the problem because it is full of unconvincing dialogue – very English, very modern. Craig seems to have been given the basic story but then left to put words into the mouths of his characters to fit the overall story, seemingly without much idea of the times, places or people he is writing about other than their actions. Menaul then delivers this in a way that is inconsistent but certainly never once feels like a serious film about this powerful family and the country they ruled (I would say destroyed but it is all relative isn't it?). Instead the delivery comes off like a hybrid of British sitcom and Eastenders.

At the start we are treated to "jaunty" almost jokey music in the background as the family and the government are established for the viewer. Why? What purpose did it serve I asked myself because to me all it did was clunk and stand out as being odd. From here on in we get more of the violence and such of the tale but the dialogue and performances conspire to make this come across as an Iraqi version of the Mitchell brothers going at it in Eastenders and the effect is to make it feel comic and cheap. The performances match this and nobody seems to be able to do much with the characters and dialogue handed them and as a result they do all come over like they are playing in a television soap. Bonnard's narration and performance is weak and, as the heart of the film she is poorly cast – what a year though, from HBO's Five Days to this. Townsend matches this and he has no screen presence as Saddam, which is a failing if you think about the man himself in his trial. The character to be had was Uday, as it offers the chance for an actor to ham it up like Pacino in Scarface. Unfortunately Mays just does the basics with nothing behind it – OK, we are told that Uday is perhaps unhinged due to how his father treated him but Mays cannot bring this all – all he can do is the superficial things, which might impress some but didn't do much for me.

The cast do struggle though with a script that is near worthless. OK, it might provide some insight in the overall view of Saddam's tribe but in the delivery it is cheaply made with little to convince or engage.

I'm sure we all think that we know everything that there is to know about Saddam, however I found the documentary "Saddam's Tribe" to be a very astute portrayal of the 1990s Saddam era. This documentary was narrated unofficially through the eyes of Saddam's daughter Raghad, and does a fascinating job of sticking to her point of view while simultaneously maintaining a very accurate portrayal of events. It's simply brilliant because it allows us to see a side of Saddam which we hardly get through the lens of the Western media.

I've read extensively about Saddam and have formed many of the same character opinions and details about events as in this film. I was actually impressed that they had got it right, which is kind of rare to see that on American television; usually it's the typical images of him shooting off guns and hanging people in the streets.

Many see the man as more of a one dimensional character - a dictator. Saddam was a well organized man, a Stalinist, and the only 'who' when concerning the 'who's who' of Iraq. The "Ace of Spaces" or the "butcher of Baghdad" in the eyes of the West was minimized because he was much more to his people who supported him, and this documentary allows somewhat of a venue for that realistic view.

Raghad's point of view as realistic since it was certainly feasible for Saddam to lavishly cater to his family while treating other tribes and sects as pawns in his illusions for a pan-Arab state. It's actually the way it works in Iraq, tribes come first, his tribe came first, he trusted and relied on them by elevating them to preeminent roles even when they were totally unqualified.

Perhaps what was missing from his character was purposely left out of the film since Raghad would not have seen it so easily? Most notably, Saddam's clear character flaw in always having one foot in 'old world' and one foot in 'modern world'. For example as a consequence to this, he once scoffed at the US support for Israel as "there were clearly more Arab nations, why support the Jews", illustrating a total lack of understanding on his part. It could also be argued, that perhaps the movie had it's "cheesy parts", such as the car scene which was unrealistic, and it's rough dialog compared to Hollywood standards; but as a drama unfolding through the eyes of his daughter, it struck me as brilliant.

In it all, we see the corruption of reality from within Raghad's point of view as it "subsequently" falls apart as she transcends throughout the film. In reality, she is finally able to see what we all see in her father, a cold, calculating, evil tyrant bent on ends justified through any means. Through her suffering we can empathize with her need to forgive and accept her father for who he really is as we forgive those who have close ties in our own tribes.

It's good.

The documentary maker interviewed Saddam's eldest daughter and then used English speaking actors to act it all out and an English voice over to depicting what the daughter said. It's all correct to a large degree. We hear her defend her psychopath dad with every line never saying anything bad about any family member even though her whole family were mass murderers and thieves.

The doc then also shows us scenes where they did bad things. Especially her husband who fled Iraq and tried to take power of Iraq via CIA and Uday who was Saddam's eldest son and an extreme psychopath. We see just how evil he was even though his sister calls him smart.

It's very rushed and the acting is often obnoxious as they shout at each other way too much. The first hour is great, but the shouting is way too irritating later on. Furthermore the family are full of evil people. Even the family members who escaped actually robbed Iraq before running away. Billions missing and much of the money was taken by Saddam's daughters. They now leave an extremely wealthy life and have a lot to thank Saddam for. It's a shame all these docs about Saddam always use family members as sources so we never get the full picture of just how evil these people were.

The mini series is much better as it takes time to tell the tale. This doc is too rushed timeline wise. Still a great summary, but nothing more. The mini series is a deeper dive. Though this doc has a ton of stuff I have never heard about before like Uday shooting his uncle. Such scenes are based on rumors and very little info. So they are maybe not 100% correct. But you kinda have to guess a lot to depict events.

All though a very well researched and executed programme, my beef with this documentary is that the main actor who played the character of Saddam Hussein, just does not look or feel like Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussien was a modern day baddie but he was a legend and he deserved to be portrayed properly. I feel he wasn't! But otherwise it is a good film!

If they had used another actor who looked a bit more like the Saddam Hussein we knew then i feel this film could have been much better.

When the main character was so famously known by millions, the actor who played him had to look and feel like him. Like Sir Ben Kingsley did for Gandhi!

Based on interviews with Saddam's oldest daughter we see the last years of Saddam's rule i Iraq. Saddam's tribe and family rules and abuses the country as if it were their private property. People are murdered for no reason and they indulge in an opulent lifestyle other Iraqis can only dream of. Often the story we are told by her is in stark contrast to what's shown in the film. She has a very positive image of her father. Although the actor doesn't look like Saddam it's still very convincing and well acted and gives us an interesting look into the life of a dictator. When you've seen this you don't need to question the reason for invading Iraq.