I love cunt.

I want cunt.

I see a cunt, I want to fuck it.

I don’t care.

I love my country. I love my mother, my father.

But I love cunt more than I love God!

– Uday Hussain after kidnapping a school girl in The Devil’s Double

George W.Bush was a warmonger who wrought great misery on America and other parts of the world as well.

But we all must be enormously thankful to Bush for one reason.

And for one reason only – The Killing of Uday Hussain by U.S. soldiers during the illegal Iraqi invasion over non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

While it is true that history is written by the victors, several accounts (besides the U.S.) put Uday Hussain, son of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, as a monster.

Even by the standards of fiends, Uday was a sick monster given to debauchery, plunder, rape and murder.

Uday’s Body Double

Directed by drag queen Lee Tamahori, The Devil’s Double presents the gripping account of Latif Yahia, who’s said to have served as Uday Hussain’s Fedai or body double.

Serious doubts have been cast over Latif’s accounts by British journalists.

Some eyewitnesses claim that Uday never had a body double.

But let’s not allow ourselves to be distracted by claims and counterclaims from what’s by all accounts a fine movie.

English actor Dominic Cooper plays both Uday Hussain and his body double Latif Yahia with mucho gusto and verve.

The movie is set in the late 1980s.

Latif is serving in the Iraqi army from where he’s pulled and brought to Uday Hussain who orders him to serve as his body double.

Refusing to take ‘No’ for an answer, Uday has Latif tortured and threatens that his family members will suffer if he persists in his refusal.

Faced with a Hobson’s Choice, Latif then agrees.

From that moment, we’re provided an intimate look into Uday Hussain’s bizarre private life.

The opulent lifestyle, the girls, the drugs, the killing, the kidnapping of young school girls, rape of brides, the wild, incoherent rage, the torture, sexcesses and the excesses.

How much of the sexcesses and excesses we see in The Devil’s Double is real and how much fiction, we can never know with certainty.

But director Lee Tamahori provides a thrilling, fairly-fast paced portrait of a psychotic monster in Uday Hussain that has us glued to the screen.

Dominic Cooper does an excellent job, both as the wild, unhinged Uday and as the restrained, helpless Latif forced to extinguish his personality and previous life and facing repeated assassination attempts.

The last 20-minutes or so were a disappointment as the movie slows down to a languorous pace and an effete unconvincing ending.

SearchIndia.com recommends the Devil’s Double to connoisseurs of offbeat cinema.

The Devil’s Double is available at Netflix if you live in the U.S.

  Latif Yahia, Uday Hussain