The Devil’s Double
dir by Lee Tamahori

One of my favorites of the festival so far, this film uses intense brutality to explore captivity, honor, and the gang-like corruption of absolute power. That it accomplishes this while remaining a tight character study and never veering off into a political agenda is what makes this movie truly special! Dominic Cooper plays both the madman son of Sadaam Hussein, and Leitif, the citizen who is called in to be his body double. Both of Cooper’s characters are so fully developed and nuanced that I was able to temporarily put aside my biggest complaint (mainly that this is a story of Arabic characters told almost entirely with white actors except for, of course, the background. Seriously does that not matter to anyone???). 

The camera work almost never reveals the tricks they had to utilize to accomplish a seamless dual story. And though I’m not qualified to speak of the authenticity of the facts of the film (it was loosely based on Leitif’s own autobiography) it was emotionally engaging and quite moving.