Whitaker hopes Uganda will see true Amin in film

18/02/2007 23:03

By Tim Cocks

KAMPALA (Reuters) - As Ugandans eagerly awaited the first screening of "The Last King of Scotland," the Hollywood star playing Idi Amin said on Saturday he hoped the fictional film truly portrayed the life of the late dictator.

Speaking ahead of Uganda’s premiere of the film, Forest Whitaker, whose role in the film has already won him an Oscar nomination, said he hoped Ugandan viewers would not be disappointed.

"I tried to do everything I could to make it true and honest," he said in an interview at a Kampala hotel ahead of Uganda’s premiere of the film.

"If I failed, it would be very disappointing. I was trying with the conscience ... that I didn’t want to disappoint the Ugandan people."

The film, shot in Uganda, narrates the story of a friendship between the ruthless ruler and a young Scottish doctor. It tries to capture Amin’s strange mix of savage cruelty with warmth and charm that has fascinated journalists and film-makers.

Some 300,000 people were tortured, killed or "disappeared" in Amin’s police state.

Whitaker said he took the role for the challenge of playing Amin’s complex character. He also yearned to visit Africa.

"I wanted to go to Africa and experience that because I hadn’t as an African-American," he said.

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prepare for the role, he spoke to former Ugandan generals and Amin family members. He also visited Amin’s old haunts.

"Pressure comes from trying to make sure that you show the truth, that you show the wholeness of who the person is," he said, adding that when he was offered the role, he knew little about Amin, except that he was an "evil dictator."

"FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER"

The film title makes reference to one of the grandiose titles Amin frequently gave himself.

Though fictional, it features historical events, such as the 1976 night-time raid of Entebbe airport by Israeli special forces to free a group of airplane hostages.

Director Kevin MacDonald told Reuters it was ultimately a story about British colonialism -- Amin was a soldier in the British King’s African Rifles before Uganda’s independence.

"Amin was a Frankenstein’s monster created by the British," MacDonald said. "They promoted him in the army, they approved of his coup. One of the messages of the film is about the dangers of international interference."

The story also traces the moral deterioration of Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan, who gets increasingly corrupted by Amin’s wealth.

"We’ve all got a bit of Dr Garrigan in us. We’re all capable of being seduced by power and riches," MacDonald said.

James McAvoy, who played Garrigan, said he tried to put him in as unsympathetic a light as possible: (He’s) a hero who’s actually not a hero -- who’s vain and arrogant and selfish... That was important to me to play him like that."

Whitaker is the bookmakers’ favourite to win the bets actor Oscar next Sunday, but he did not want to speculate on whether he would take the award home.

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