Related Post
Kurdish director Halkut Mustafa documented 235 decisive days in the life of the former Iraqi president Saddam HusseinAnd those are the days that followed The American invasion of Iraq. Mustafa monitored the stages of the search for the Iraqi president, who was later executed on December 30, 2006, in the Iraqi-Norwegian documentary film “Hiding Saddam Hussein.”
The film “Hiding Saddam Hussein” competed in the feature film competition at the third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival, which was held from November 30 to December 9.
Dramatic heroism
In a trench between palm trees in the Al-Dur area, Saddam Hussein disappeared from the eyes of the American occupation forces, and 150,000 soldiers were assigned to search for him. During the months that Saddam lived as a guest of Alaa Namiq, a simple Iraqi farmer who became his bodyguard, he lived with him for the last 235 days before he was arrested.
Alaa Namiq told Al Jazeera Net that he agreed to appear in the film, and gave director Halkut Mustafa all the details about the late president in his last days, after he refused to participate in any films or programs about that period.
Namiq’s refusal came for several reasons, including the spread of confusion about the matter through social media sites that promoted untrue matters related to his hosting of Saddam Hussein, in addition to his desire to clear his region and his clan of any allegations about things that did not happen.
Alaa Namiq met the Kurdish director in 2012, and they agreed to present the story in a humanitarian format only and away from entering into politics, and he agreed immediately.
Alaa Namiq wanted to talk in the film about “Saddam Hussein” as a person who was a guest of an Iraqi family, “In Iraq, our duty is to honor the guest and protect him, even if that means sacrificing yourself and everything you own.”
The Kurdish director – who fled with his family to the north during the rule of Saddam Hussein – tells Al Jazeera Net: “I also have my own story. I am a Kurd and I fled from Saddam Hussein’s regime and all my family was fighting against his regime, but in the film I wanted to be a director only, not play a role.” “Politically.”
Indeed, “Namiq” appeared as the hero of the events of the movie “Hiding Saddam Hussein,” the farmer who was able to hide Saddam from the eyes of American soldiers for months, and the drama of the events that Saddam lived through.
The Kurdish director continued that his enthusiasm for the work stemmed from his desire to present the story from an Iraqi perspective, and to present a sophisticated vision of the story, as “everything that was published regarding the Iraq War was always from the West’s perspective.”
Search trip
The events of the film begin with archival scenes that monitor the entry of the American army into Iraq under the pretext of the presence of weapons of mass destruction, the resistance of the Iraqi army and its fall, and then an escape journey that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein lived during 8 crucial months in his life from April to December 2003, which he lived Away from a luxurious life on a farm in a remote area near the Tigris Valley, to hide in the mountains and cross the river, away from the American forces that allocated millions of dollars to anyone who would inform about his whereabouts.
Halkut Mustafa says about choosing that time period that everyone knew Saddam Hussein during his rule of Iraq, which was close to 35 years, but the period of his disappearance remained a vague mystery. No one knows how he left and where he disappeared from the picture over the course of 8 months, and even the trench in which he hid.
Some believed his story, others disbelieved, so there was curiosity about that story, and the question that occupied the Kurdish director was: Was the story true?
Halkout added, “I spent 14 years searching for this story,” and pointed out that in the first interview with Alaa Namiq, they were both afraid, but then they met for four days and disagreed on some matters, and they ended up agreeing to present the work in a humanitarian manner and monitor how Saddam lived for his months. The last one before his arrest.
Halkut Mustafa denies any interference from the production side or the Norwegian Film Institute, which supported the vision of the film, as they left him free rein to present a human story away from politics.
Another novel
Alaa Namiq’s novel was not the only source that Halkout relied on in presenting the film. He verified the conversation through historical documents, and he compared what Namiq said to real events, such as Saddam Hussein’s son’s visit to him and then his killing.
Helkot continues that he did not rely on unconfirmed sources. Over the course of ten years, he saw between 3 and 4 thousand archive extracts and 25 hours of interviews, and rearranged the story, in addition to filming on a farm close to the original farm in which Saddam lived, with a part… My archive was used in the film.
During 14 years of preparations, the Kurdish director faced many difficulties to produce “Hiding Saddam Hussein,” and he says that the difficulty lies in the fact that the film crew did not know anything about the film itself or its details, in order to ensure the safety of Alaa Namiq and his family, in addition to hiring a legal advisor to ensure One distance between everyone.
In his narration of the story, Halkut relied on re-enacting some scenes, and told the story in the manner of old folk stories, so he used Namik as a narrator of the events. Regarding not exploiting him in acting scenes, he indicated that he wanted to give him the opportunity to tell the novel as he wanted, and he chose simple details such as him sitting on the ground to be closer to Arab culture, so that the scene appears realistic and the audience believes it, and for credibility he used archival scenes of what Namiq does in his novel.
The actor who portrayed the character of Saddam Hussein in the skits, Hilkot, said that he did not want to make him look like Saddam, but rather he wanted the spectator to feel that he was in front of someone playing the character of Saddam, which is what was intended in the work.
