VARIOUS: A DOCUMENTARY MADE BY JOEL SOLER ON SADDAM HUSSEIN CALLED 'UNCLE SADDAM' IS RELEASED ON DVD IN THE USA BY XENON ENTERTAINMENT.

Record ID: 645918

  • Title: VARIOUS: A DOCUMENTARY MADE BY JOEL SOLER ON SADDAM HUSSEIN CALLED 'UNCLE SADDAM' IS RELEASED ON DVD IN THE USA BY XENON ENTERTAINMENT.
  • Date: 1st April 2003
  • Summary: (W1) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (RECENT - APRIL 3, 2003) (REUTERS) MV: SOUNDBITE (English) FILMMAKER JOEL SOLER SAYING "People, even now, they see that, you know, that Saddam is still around, and they are afraid to speak and they know the price, I mean, if they speak. It's not only them who are going to be killed. It's them, their family and six generations around their family."
  • Embargoed: 16th April 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND VARIOUS IRAQ FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General,Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA1FI2HPM7CUGGVTSTZ3FDMWHXZ
  • Story Text: Uncle Saddam, a satirical documentary that portrays
    Saddam Hussein as both a despot and an eccentric, has just
    been released on DVD in the United States as rumours suggest
    the Iraqi leader could be alive, wounded, dead, fleeing to
    Syria or hiding in the Russian Embassy in Baghdad.



    Distributors Xenon Entertainment say the timing of
    Wednesday's DVD release (April 2, 2003) is mere coincidence,
    but with the world's eyes on Iraq the film has a wide
    potential audience.

    Made by French freelance journalist Joel Soler in 2000,
    the film was first released at international film festivals
    two years ago.

    After being shown on the North American cable channel
    Cinemax, the picture is now being made available to U.S.

    audiences on DVD, just as U.S.-led forces capture the country
    city by city.

    Soler's film was compiled from footage he smuggled out of
    Iraq during a visit there on the pretext of chronicling the
    nation's suffering under U.N. sanctions.

    The filmmaker won access to a number of Saddam's
    associates, including an interior designer, an architect, one
    of Saddam's cousins, and, to use Soler's words, "the best
    friend of Saddam's wife."
    In an interview at his Los Angeles home, Soler pointed
    out that the 62-minute film is not intended to be a political
    documentary.

    "My goal was, you know, to understand: who is Saddam
    Hussein," he explained. "Who is the man? Who is his family?"
    After the fall of Baghdad to U.S. troops in the capital,
    many people are not just asking who Saddam Hussein is, but
    where he may be.

    The only absolute certainty, U.S. officials said, was
    that Saddam's fate was not known.

    Among the rumours circulating were that Saddam died in
    the initial U.S. bombing on March 20 Iraqi time (March 19 U.S.

    time), that he survived a targeted strike on Monday (April 7),
    that he was wounded, caught in a shoot-out, hiding in the
    Russian Embassy, hiding in Russia and hiding in Syria.

    When making the film two years ago, however, Soler
    focused on the personal habits of the man.

    Among those highlighted by the film is Saddam's obsession
    with hygiene.

    In one clip, the Iraqi President discusses his standards
    for personal cleanliness, commenting that "it's not
    appropriate for someone to attend a gathering or to be with
    his children with his body odour trailing behind him emitting
    sweet or stinky smell mixed with perspiration."
    But Soler was never granted the opportunity to interview
    Saddam himself.

    "I spent two months with Saddam's entourage, but I never
    met with Saddam," the filmmaker said. "So what I did, I
    smuggled illegally out of Iraq some exclusive interviews, and
    those interviews were shot by some of, some of Saddam's
    cameraman."
    Since the U.S.-led war against Iraq began, a man believed
    to be Saddam was seen on videotapes aired on Iraqi television,
    but it has been unclear when those tapes were made.

    In recalling his time in Iraq, Soler focused on the
    oppressive culture that shapes the lives of ordinary Iraqis.

    "People, even now, they see that, you know, that Saddam
    is still around, and they are afraid to speak. And they know
    the price, I mean, if they speak. It's not only them who are
    going to be killed. It's them, their family and six
    generations around their family."
    The "Uncle Saddam" DVD package includes an interview with
    Soler, a "100 percent anti-Saddam" sticker and a pack of
    "dictators of the world" trading cards.

    GULF WAR 3
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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