Film on Idi Amin of Uganda

From London daily The Morning Star:

The Last King of Scotland

(Thursday 11 January 2007)

Directed by Kevin Macdonald

POWERFUL: Forest Whitaker takes over the screen and proceedings as the murderous Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

JEFF SAWTELL sees the mighty Forest Whitaker thunder into life as bloody dictator Idi Amin.

AS the Scottish nationalists stand poised to take power at Holyrood after 300 years of the UK union, it seems somewhat ironic that this week sees the release of a film called The Last King Of Scotland.

Ironic? Because, although it features the fortunes of a Scotsman and is directed by Kevin Macdonald, it happens to be about another anti-colonial cousin, General Idi Amin Dada.

You remember him – the former British soldier whom the 1971 Tory government deemed suitable to install as the dictator of Uganda to save it from the clutches of “communist” Dr Milton Obote.

In fact, Obote wasn’t a communist.

He had simply voiced socialist sentiments, which, given Britain’s track record in its former colonies, is like signing your own death warrant.

As the British Foreign Office said, Amin was “a splendid type and a good footballer.”

Their film spokesman is more specific. “He has a firm hand, something the Africans understand.”

Film and society: here.