VARIOUS: Latif Yahia, body double of Saddam Hussein's son Uday, joins British actor Dominic Cooper who portrays him in "The Devil's Double" at the film's UK premiere

Record ID: 219335

  • Title: VARIOUS: Latif Yahia, body double of Saddam Hussein's son Uday, joins British actor Dominic Cooper who portrays him in "The Devil's Double" at the film's UK premiere
  • Date: 2nd August 2011
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (AUGUST 1, 2011) (REUTERS) YAHIA WALKING IN TO TAKE HIS PLACE (SOUNDBITE) (English) LATIF YAHIA, WRITER, SAYING (about how he lost his identity): "Lost identity, yeah. I lost my identity completely when I was in Iraq - even they issue a death certificate for me. It take a long time, even after I left to the West. It take five years between psychology doctors and counselling, and yeah, the scar, you carry it with you your whole life. It's not something to forget it overnight."
  • Embargoed: 17th August 2011 13:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA4C128DN7E126PGBW6F3U4V9MZ
  • Story Text: The chilling adaptation of the decadent life of Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, and his body double, Latif Yahia, is brought to life for the big screen, and stars British actor Dominic Cooper ("An Education" and "Mamma Mia") in the lead, dual role as both men.
    Yahia and Cooper were in London on Monday (August 1) in Leicester Square's Vue cinema on the red carpet, along with co-star, French actress Ludivine Sagnier who plays Uday's mistress Sarrab, to talk about one of the House of Saddam's most notorious family members -- the "Ace of Hearts" on the Allies' most wanted list, and how Yahia give up his whole existence to become Uday's 'fiday' (body double), surviving 11 assassination attempts targeted at Uday.
    Based on Yahia's book of the same name, a gripping unbelievable true story of money, power and opulent decadence, "The Devil's Double" takes a plunge into the lawless playground of excess and violence known as Baghdad in 1987.
    Summoned from the frontline to Saddam Hussein's palace, Iraqi army lieutenant Latif Yahia (Cooper) is thrust into the highest echelons of the "royal family" when he's ordered to become the body double to Saddam's son, the notorious "Black Prince" Uday Hussein (also 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.
    With one wrong move costing him his life, Latif forges an intimate bond with Sarrab (Sagnier), Uday's seductive mistress who's haunted by her own secrets. But as war looms with Kuwait and Uday's depraved gangster regime threatens to destroy them all, Latif realises that escape from the devil's den will only come at the highest possible cost.
    Yahia, who visibly still carries the physical scars of his ordeal that ended in 1991, told Reuters that he lost his identity completely, even to the point that a death certificate was issued in his birth name. It has taken a long time for him to get some form of that identity back.
    "It take five years between psychology doctors and counselling, and yeah, the scar, you carry it with you your whole life. It's not something to forget it overnight," says Yahia.
    It was a challenge to hold onto a slither of his original identity during his time has Uday's fiday, an experience that was a terrifying one. Yahia has a chilling message for the Hussein family's late son.
    "Just the worst thing happened to me when I get to Kuwait and I have the assassination attempt, and nearly, this is, I lost my life. I've been injured in my arm, my chest, my head - I nearly [was] killed there. But Uday, this guy I say, and I say it before again; if I see him in Hell, I'll kill him again. I can't forgive anyone, except this guy," says Yahia.
    Ironically, although he was robbed of his life by the House of Saddam, the now Iraqi-born author, blogger, Ph.D in International Law and former military officer Yahia has quoted on his website (latifyahia.com) that "Iraq needs a Saddam Hussein", and he explains why with some strong words for his countrymen.
    "When I say Saddam, need another Saddam Hussein because Iraqi people they ruled by seven years ago, not about just Saddam, every leader he run Iraq, he run by blood and he didn't run it easy," says Yahia. "Iraqi people, they are not easy people to run. It's a shame to say, it's my own country. There are two faces, they make the dictators, they make the martyrs. One advice for Iraqis, if they want to build their own country, stop clapping hands for every monkey who come and leads this country."
    Star Cooper who plays Yahia/Uday says it was all shocking to him and not easy to understand the mindset behind the regime and those who were forced to live it.
    "We haven't been exposed to that horror, to those tyrants, that world. It's really very removed from our ideas. To physically be able to harm another human being in that way is staggering and really, really hard to just even believe, and that's why it's amazing even just talking to Latif and seeing the mental and physical wounds that, that man has, it all stays with me," says Cooper.
    "It's kind of just beyond anything I can comprehend. But I remember the images and I remember Lee's [Tamahori, director] determination to make it that violent, so that we... I think you need, you need to realise that did happen. We in a way dumbed it down. It's not violence for violence's sake. That is what they were like," he adds.
    Sagnier who plays Yahia's forbidden love in the film says she wanted to find out what the real Sarrab was like from the Iraqi writer, Yahia, which helped her mould her portrayal.
    "He said that she was very joyful and loveable, and that she was always joking. In this man's world, it was kind of striking because she really had like a cynical view on everything. That's why [what] I try to express," explains Sagnier.
    Born to Muslim Iraqi parents in June 1964, Yahia attended the same school as Uday Hussein at the age of 15, and became classmates with him. His resemblance to Uday was noted at this time.
    Yahia served in the Iraqi military and in the Iran-Iraq War, and at the age of 23, he was ordered to report to the Presidential Palace, where he was informed that he was to become Uday's fiday (body double) to make public appearances in the guise of Uday whenever a dangerous situation was expected.
    Latif initially refused to take on the dangerous job and was subsequently put in solitary confinement. After the imprisonment, Latif agreed to pose as the body double for Uday. He was trained for six months to imitate Uday's speech patterns and manner. He underwent surgery and dental work to make their appearances more similar.
    During Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Latif was used as a morale booster for the Iraqi troops and sent to Basra posing as Uday to meet with troops.
    When Uday's notorious concubine, Sarrab, paid more attention to Latif, Uday shot at him, grazing him. Latif fled north, where he was imprisoned by Kurdish rebels, being mistaken for Uday. Eventually his captors realised that he was not Uday, and he was released and granted asylum in Austria in 1992.
    "The Devil's Double" opens in UK cinemas on August 10, and is currently showing in US theatres.
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