'Capturing Idi Amin' documentary

I would emphasize the function of the head of governance of the Republic of Uganda so I have been honored by the highest border of the Conqueror of the British imperialism in Uganda this I must make it absolutely clear you must teach people to love their leader if the people wants me I will go back and I am sure I will contribute more for the people of Uganda we were the people who were in that time as we have to remember our people who passed her with me I'm not too happy if I see any nerdy I had that even killed his own child very few of the children in the Dead range of 20 and below I've had so when they come and see things whether this lady or get interested Idi Amin returned to Uganda in the form of American actor Forest Whitaker who's starring in the Last King of Scotland a thriller set in a means Uganda this is the first time since his death that Idi Amin has been portrayed on film The Last King of Scotland is based on the novel by Giles Fulton and tells the story of a fictional Scottish doctor played by James McAvoy who becomes Idi Amin's closest friend and advisor Scottish why didn't you say so the making of this film by a British crew in Uganda about such a controversial figure raises a number of questions how will you Gardens react to this interpretation of their history and how does their view of Idi Amin differ from that of the West how do you place a fictional story into a historical setting and is it possible to separate the real Idi Amin from the strange and bizarre stories that surround him well one of the things that has occurred to me between here is that you know up until Nelson Mandela I think Idi Amin was the most famous African ever in history ever since he came to Pi in 1971 there has been no end to the strange and sometimes horrific stories of how he's been holding on to power in Uganda they've been reported numerous massacres and 12 of his ministers have already fled the country all the stories about his cannibalism and witchcraft and multiple partners and he kind of represents all those worst and most savage about the Dark Continent there are pictures that I had was a sort of colonialist version of who he was this monster image of a black African man who was evil incarnate certainly there were many travesties that happened but it's a much more complicated and complete story and he's a much more whole man than the image that I had one thing I like about this particular script is that it's not just a demonization of Idi Amin and in a way creates what the international community did not see of Idi Amin Amin rating in the country is different from what people think in the outside I think for some some people should think we ready - hi / - he's a budget the machinist for me I mean I think he's a hero I look at him as a hero who try to bring out Uganda's nationality and trying to uplift the Carrico heritage / country I met him I was doing a brass band and everybody was fighting for his life was so huge and when I put my little pal mayito hand it just disappeared into speaker it's as if I had no problem oh yeah yeah come on a pariah he made himself this Superman this demigod who could do things that hadn't done before he could dare the British he could dare the Americans he could do anybody he threatened to go to South Africa and kick out the Boers he was that type of guy he recruited people he offered aid to the British a little else but he was a funny guy Edie Edie yummy most amazing man there's evidence he be generally President Aquino the same I mean the most busy man that you will have seen naughty generally president be seen I mean was larger than life it was a huge figure I'm six foot four and even I felt somewhat dwarfed by him but he was bulky with it I mean initially he was always quite jolly and the whole of him kind of erupted into her there was nothing really immediately sinister about him and yet his eyes were rather cold they wanted to ask you are you not afraid of interviewing the Conqueror of British Empire as you are British you are not afraid of the film of the Last King of Scotland and the novel that it's based upon plays a completely fictional character into the court of Idi Amin have you wanted to people who've read it as pure history which it isn't it is a fiction now - say it's sort of 80% fiction but mostly fact which sort of gives a sense of this confused status like that I read the book seven years ago but I loved about Last King of Scotland that you you had the thriller aspect the element of it but set against this regime that existed the film's director is Kevin Macdonald a documentary maker best known for the award-winning touching the void this is his first non documentary film our aim was never to make a film that is historically accurate we have taken liberties with as the novel does and I think one of the reasons that we feel happy doing that with our mean in particular is because there's something about him which is kind of almost more fictional and it is real you never really can pin down what the historical reality is the mean has now over time become part of the entertainment scene in Uganda in terms of real memory he's sinking back into the archives there are a few facts about a means early life what is known is that he joined the British Army in 1946 way soon proved himself to be an accomplished sportsman and he was Ugandan heavyweight boxing champion for nine years I knew him terribly well for 10 years I would say quite honestly this man is a good friend he had that wonderful indefinable quality of leadership he was a born leader of man and he was a very successful soldier when he was in the British Army he was a kind of licensed killer and there are all sorts of stories about the things that he did he was in the British Army and that was kind of let go because he was you I think he was licensed to do those things oh I see you yeah how's it going in there how's he got you down in a handshake yeah I've got you getting handed any of the more work I think we can say the British were responsible for I mean though they found him they made him a sergeant major and because they had not produced a black officer class in Uganda at Independence they said okay who are our most senior people we have got look at this big chap by the time you gotta achieved independence from Britain in 1961 the British had promoted him in to the rank of Effendi thereby ensuring that he was one of the most powerful men in the Ugandan army this gave him the opportunity to seize power from President Milton of Beaute in a military coup in 1971 the reality about Jimenez that everyone in the country and really welcomed him coming to power and those kind of jubilation on the streets we start with that kind of Amina I mean he's loved by his people we may not be you gotta ask for this I've decided to take over power from a button and headed to our fellow soldier Major General is Amin Dada oh the route was very very hopeful it was the masses the kind of buddies we used to address the avid vehicle they just stopped get all the people to get on people similar box is the setting of a brave new world is like the first president who came out to the people the first president who seems to care although dr. Garrigan is a fictional character it is true that whilst president Idi Amin was treated by a number of British doctors I think he was at times what we call happy many come he was excited he felt that he had a better understanding than most people of what was going on and that his ideas which from the whole were fairly obvious for in fact rather the ideas of genius and that he owed it to the world to put the world right recently general I mean sent a telegram to the Queen inviting himself on a state visit to Britain this August he told the Queen he wanted to meet leaders of British liberation movements the Welsh Irish and Scottish nationalists the Queen has not yet replied to this telegram other examples of it well I think the fact that he talked so much people who become excited will have ideas of grandeur who think that they have the answer to complicated problems and in sense lose touch with everyday reality as the character of dr. Garrigan has drawn closer into the world of President Amin he witnesses the increasing brutality of a regime god we couldn't do a film but the human side of Idi Amin without showing some of the real brutality that happened and we had to show that as well as the more charismatic you know humorous side that people you know also fell for reports started filtering turbid and creating the suspicions which I think was the ignition point for the paranoia that eventually led to most of the actions he took I would assess Amin is a very sensitive person like any other president if you identify yourself that you want to remove him from his power so you honor him an enemy so he would react to against you in any way he likes British government has broken its promises to Uganda because of this I've decided to expel all Asians from this country Idi Amin's announcement that he was giving all Asians living in Uganda just 90 days to leave the country caused an international outcry and was met with horror by his British mentors my economy it has been milked by the non citizens of Uganda I will not allow this in Uganda the worsening relationship between Britain and Uganda is one of the themes that the Last King of Scotland explores this films not just about Eddie it's not just about Uganda it's also about how Britain and maybe that s the world we certainly Britain and see Britain more than anyone looked at Uganda at this time because I'm very much but it means lookingglass in this film you make a newspaper say I am a glamour in the early 1970s there was still a lot of racism about and I think that I mean appealed to a racist stereotype of Africa if he hadn't existed we would have had to invent him he was a perfect kind of larger than life Oh giris you know people eating monster of a dictator and he became hugely good copy and people didn't necessarily pay attention to the more serious side of him both positive and negative because they were so loving him as a kind of caricature there was no great interest in portraying Africa as anything other than a basket case and Amin was a classic African dictator that kind of fulfilled a tabloid need see that's what they're like one of the reasons why he's so demonized too is because of he was a figure that really stood against you know a colonization you very clearly that's what he did he was like get out we can handle our own affairs and there's very few people who have done that they should not continue with the propaganda because today I can control the British myself it's also been reported that you trying to sell Mouse King of Scotland in 1974 Idi Amin offered to head the fight for Scottish independence and proclaimed himself Last King of Scotland he developed a lifelong affection for the country whilst in the Kings African Rifles where his commanding officers were all Scottish alright bossy how do you want to do that it's only because we need to get the job done I think I mean more like a distorted mirror reflecting back to the colonial masters in Britain what he learned from them so he took ideas like bagpipes kilts and imposed them into a completely inappropriate world by attaching himself to Scotland and in particular the idea of an independent Scotland he was able to keep a connection to the colonial power one as he wanted and yet also fight against it he wanted the connection but hated it at the same time if you go to Scotland you will talk to the people they will welcome you to the house if you go to where there is English they don't want to sit in near African if they see a black man they say is monkey or dogs English themselves they are the rationalist completely not Scottish there's some horrible way he was like a sort of puppet that's come to life he was like a plaything of the Empire that turned around and said boo you don't do any nasty spying I think this little guys leg I have to say I really feel this in stating you know blood I think I really think they'd been bastard to their isolated abroad and with mounting opposition at home an increasingly paranoid Amin began to place uneducated tribesmen and soldiers in governmental posts and positions of power they were able to detain and to kill with immunity I've got some secret files here I found these at the command post after the Tanzanians liberated right well in here which is I think the most sinister document of all is a list of employees of the state research and not remember that model that was the secret police yeah those step research bureaus where where fellows were always so flamboyant into Indian dress he really had very smart soldiers and very smart intelligence guys so they have all these went polished shoes and then always wore dark shades it's impossible to overstate just how frightening and terrifying this place was everybody was watching everybody else in one of the files that I recovered from the command post lists and lists and lists of state security people that means lists and lists of the people who were spying on each other on everyone else you know the paranoia that's because paranoid stay to research we are so scared of there you are walking the street you see a soldier he just Doge and find another route we are very very scared of soldiers they were the people who are no value for which money beings and I remember one of the soldiers Maria Mungo who say that was more expensive to kill a chicken than issue money because you pay for the chicken got no value for life good in sacrifices most of the actors the young men who are acting they don't know what the hell I mean it's all about they don't know what memories go by a me well yeah quite a few people involved in the film who have had a very strong personal experience of VD and when they tell you it experiences it really stops you sure to remind you if you weren't aware already that it is a very important story that we're telling and that we need to try and get it as right as we possibly can yeah in the film I play the character of the Air Force Commander he diminished him away so my role was brief think it'll be it was monstrous because I lived through his time not with monstrous but if I took an example my own father he was a senior police officer in this country and idiom in picture born with him so he finds him and sometime about February of 1971 who March he was among the prisoners transferred to MU to clegg of med prison which is the border of Tanzania they took him there with 1500 other prisoners and where he was killed they just mutilated him so he lives among with the mass of the mass grave mutilated in a peak somewhere in him in Tanzania border this was premeditated killing of innocent people political opponents this is a mass grave in which at least 100 bodies lie buried all victims of Idi Amin's army the corpses include those of women and young children the grave is the most appalling single piece of evidence yet found in Uganda on the scale and the type of killing which the country's endured under Amin during these dangerous times Michaels generation grew up hearing strange and dark myths about the leader that Amin ate the flesh of his victims and that he killed his own son up to now it's very difficult for me to believe that I mean didn't eat the live of his son Moses such a scary image had been spread about Idi Amin that you felt everything negative said was true we feared him so so much if he could kill so much maybe he could also do some of these other things another of these myths is that Amin killed his second wife Kay and mutilated her body okay was that means wife number two so the present rate I knew her right where she was well educated and we thought it was a welcome development because she was able to polish she's English the filmmakers used the myths around Kay for dramatic effect by placing dr. Garrigan at the center of her story it was important for me to not know anything it was important to me believer holding him as soon as I start realizing what's really not real I'll start to justify the reasons why should we should cut things and we debated for a long time but whether using the story of ki was the right thing to do because it's such a horrific story but we really wanted to show was the violence that was very close to IDI there are things about her life that people are very sensitive about in Uganda people who remember her get very upset when they talk about her there while it's true that she did have an affair behind eighties back and she did become pregnant and seeking an illegal abortion she did not have an affair with a white man um which is you know I guess dramatic license for the only time in the film where Garrigan actually is inserted into a historical event and that historical event is to make Ches body was fun dismembered in the back of a car to this day does not clear how she died or who killed her what is known is that Idi Amin ordered the limbs to be sewn back on so that the family could view the body body was repaired for viewing he directed me to have that done and for me to be their will came to low-cut yeah this is the mother okay we just felt that it was such a powerful moment to dramatize Edie's frame of mind and the way the IDI operated it was valid to use it and that we weren't just being gratuitous about it for a while and Michael Carroll and designer had these sketches and as well of different positions that the limbs could be in and I guess we thought that was probably the way that it would have been people have tried to be too clever by half by saying all sorts of things about Ches body they said I mean that seems to be sewn back on the reverse but this was rubbish that when I can still say it with good authority as Minister of Health every time Idi Amin kills ow takes the body and cuts her up and souls the parts on differently which is one of the most gruesome images in the film and I think that image will stick with people really strongly and that's that's not true well another canal while American whenever Michel Geneva medical company recently I started to wonder why I make this film I know that personally I have worked really hard to find the spirit of this man that I care and I am very sensitive to his betrayal as a African figure I can't wait to see how the Again's react to the film really I think it's it's really a big unknown I think anytime somebody sees a film about themselves it's always quite hard to watch because they can see the difference between a specific reality and the generality of the film from this film one the best part of it is to bring back the history that people are so rapidly forgetting if we do not look at the ice tree we not know work where we're going and until we start looking at our history very critically and know where that is takes in the history only then can we try to do paper for the future our sons will ask us how could a mean have come into power how because they didn't see it and so it's easy for it to happen again because they don't know exposure with films like this maybe will help people know such things happening you go to the Western and you find these guys don't know where you got your eyes on the map but they know Idi Amin so we should strive to make the country bigger than me England offering yourself be alone did you call him it is yeah yeah you can't call him Eddie okay it would be executed

Channel: Two Step Films Ltd

Views: 1,818,004

Keywords: Idi Amin (Politician), Documentary (TV Genre), Uganda (Country), The Last King Of Scotland (Film), James McAvoy (Film Actor), Forest Whitaker (Celebrity), Kevin McDonald (TV Writer), Jon Snow (Award Winner)

Id: Innn86OQ97o

Length: 29min 20sec (1760 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 08 2015