VARIOUS: As Forest Whitaker wins Best Actor Oscar for his role as dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, audiences hope the film with raise the country's profile

Record ID: 474850

  • Title: VARIOUS: As Forest Whitaker wins Best Actor Oscar for his role as dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, audiences hope the film with raise the country's profile
  • Date: 28th February 2007
  • Summary: KAMPALA, UGANDA (FEBRUARY 26, 2007) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF KAMPALA CITY (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED MALE SAYING: "So, Iddi Amin... because we have got this movie we are going to take it in a positive side, people are going to know about Uganda, you know in the western world people only know about South Africa, but these movies, they get us exposed to the world." STREET WITH TRAFFIC (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED MALE SAYING: "I hope it would be a good opportunity for the actors who acted along side him to get acting roles in Hollywood."
  • Embargoed: 15th March 2007 12:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVA7CAKPI1COJJZMSX9RMY7N4J9W
  • Story Text: As Forest Whitaker won the Academy Award for best actor on Sunday (February 25) for a critically hailed performance as Ugandan ruler Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland", audiences in Kampala expressed hopes that the win would raise the country's profile.
    Whitaker, the hulking, Texas-born character actor who gained 50 pounds to play Amin and dazzled critics with his portrayal of the mercurial, brutal dictator, won the Oscar on his first-ever nomination. He is the fourth black performer to win best actor in Oscars history.
    The film, shot in Uganda, tells the fictional story of a friendship between Amin and a young Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, who is lured by the dictator's power then cannot escape as he realises the bloodshed going on around him.
    Some 300,000 people were tortured, killed or "disappeared" in Amin's police state. Relatives of his victims said they found the film hard to watch because Whitaker's Amin was so real it brought back disturbing memories.
    But, on Monday (February 26), Ugandans were pleased with the film and said they were sure it would lift the country's international profile.
    "I think this (the Oscar) is a big achievement for Uganda," said one Ugandan.
    "Even bigger than the Gifted By Nature (tourism) campaign that government paid for. Gifted By Nature they paid a lot of money but look what Forest Whitaker is doing to Uganda everybody now knows Uganda and may be coming in here to see the beauty of this country, this country is very beautiful and it was showcased in the Last King of Scotland," he said.
    "People are going to know about Uganda, you know in the western world people only know about South Africa, but these movies, they get us exposed to the world," said another man.
    Long queues formed outside cinemas in Kampala when the movie premiered in Uganda on Friday (February 23).
    The film, which was first premiered in the United States five months ago, has understandably been eagerly awaited in the African country. The film sold out as it hit the box office in the capital, a week after a VIP showing in Uganda attended by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who fought Amin as a guerrilla. The Last King of Scotland is the biggest Hollywood film to be shot in Uganda.
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