Hiding Saddam Hussein (Norway, Iraq)
Genre: Documentary
Country: Norway, Iraq
Year: 2023
Duration: 93 mins
Director: Halkawt Mustafa
Language(s): Arabic
Subtitles: English
Producer: Anders Hereid, Janne Hjeltnes, Halkawt Mustafa
Principal Cast: Alaa Namuq Jasim Al-Doori
Synopsis
Eighteen years ago, the invading US forces were searching Iraq for its deposed president, Saddam Hussein, who had seemingly disappeared into thin air. He was finally discovered in the town of Al-Dawr, living in a bunker his chauffeur and bodyguard dug between the date trees in his orchard. Alaa Namiq, now 50, hid Saddam for a staggering 235 days before the Americans tracked him down in 2003, executing him three years later. Halkawt Mustafa persuaded Namiq to tell his story for the first time in this startling documentary, which took 10 years to make and was necessarily shrouded in so much secrecy that even the crew did not know the real subject of the film they were making.
Date
Video
Asian World Film Festival
The Asian World Film Festival (AWFF), founded by Kyrgyz public figure Sadyk Sher-Niyaz and overseen by Executive & Program Director Georges N. Chamchoum, brings the very best of a broad selection of Asian World cinema to Los Angeles to draw greater recognition to the region's wealth of filmmakers and strengthen ties between the Asian and Hollywood film industries. Uniting through cross-cultural collaboration, the Festival champions films from over 50 countries across Asia, spanning from Turkey to Japan and from Russia to India and South-East Asia. The Festival is unique in that it predominantly screens Oscar and Golden Globe submissions for Best International Feature Film and Best Motion Picture - Foreign Language respectively. All films that participate in the Festival will have a unique chance to be guided through the challenging awards season and showcased to members of the Motion Picture Academy, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and all Guilds for enhanced exposure, media attention and awards consideration. AWFF is a non-profit organization under Aitysh USA.