On July 29, 2011, the action crime film "The Devil's Stand-in" released by Lionsgate was released in the United States. The film is directed by Lee Tamarhorry, co-starring Dominic Cooper and Ludwin Seignier, and is based on true events.
The film tells the story of an Iraqi man who is swept into hellish conditions, but he remains calm and tries to escape by various means.
In the movie "The Devil's Stand-in", the stills of Latif Yahya come to life. The former leader of Iraq, his name is always associated with words like "warlord", "tyrant" or "legend".
He managed to escape four assassination attempts in the United States during his lifetime, leaving the CIA's ** and the U.S. Marine Corps miserable. Globally, people's evaluations of Saddam Hussein are widely divided.
Some believe that Saddam Hussein and his eldest son, Uday, brought a war to Iraq, while others believe that it was they who made the backward country the world's fourth-largest military power for a time.
Evaluations of Saddam's life are mixed, and it is impossible to generalize. However, regarding his son Uday, opinions are surprisingly unanimous. He is widely regarded as a "devil" through and through.
Uday was born on June 18, 1964 in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. As Saddam's eldest son, he was favored since he was a child and was regarded as the biggest person in Saddam's regime.
Although he was highly regarded by his father, Uday did not take it seriously. He knows that with his father's power, he can get everything he wants, and he can also bully others at will.
Uday's lustful personality has been evident since middle school, and he will be everywhere looking for the female classmate he likes. Once they are taken by Uday, those female classmates will be taken home by Uday by all means that night.
In addition, he often openly brought his girlfriend to the classroom to openly flirt, making what should have been a place to study filthy and chaotic. Despite the outrageous nature of his actions, no one dared to stop him because everyone understood that his background was very strong.
Once, in class, in front of the whole class, Uday unscrupulously harassed a female classmate, which made the teacher in the classroom unbearable. So he harshly criticized Uday and taught him his due lesson.
Uday's eyes and the scene of slamming the door made the teacher disappear from the school. As his father Saddam Hussein became the "head" of Iraq, Uday's style of behavior became more and more brutal and wanton.
He was a drunkard, a man of adultery and plunder, a bloodthirsty man, and did whatever he could. Deeply in love with luxury, Uday spared no expense in renovating the Al-Cadasiya Palace, with an extremely luxurious interior decoration and a zoo for people to admire.
The palace is filled with precious oil paintings looted from all over the world.
Uday's residence was not only for himself, but also for 68 staff, including 2 butlers, 7 cooks, 12 drivers, 2 pastry chefs, 1 baker, 1 fisherman, 1 purchaser, and 2 animal trainers.
In addition to the luxurious living facilities, Uday often enjoys wine here**. In addition to the main building for Uday's use, the other annexes have become his harem, dedicated to him and the ** for their enjoyment.
It is said that he never slept with the same girl more than 3 times in a row. Uday has a keen interest in wine, and his mansion has an astonishing amount of fine wine.
From the floor to the ceiling, boxes of "Blue Cordon Bleu", Grand Cru Champagne, Danish vodka, and French brandy are neatly arranged, and I am afraid that I may not be able to drink them all in a few years.
But settling for a life of luxury does not satisfy Uday's brutal heart.
* From the Internet Uday is an extremely cruel person who takes pleasure in torturing others. He found opportunities to bully those around him anytime and anywhere, and scavenged a large number of torture instruments from the Internet to abuse them.
He has reportedly killed thousands of people, so no one wants to be friends with him. Uday's brutality has outraged the Iraqi people, most hated by his brutal treatment of athletes.
At Uday's orders, the Olympic Committee staff imprisoned the underperforming athletes and tortured them with various torture instruments, which was deeply distressing.
The Iraqi Olympic Committee has been reduced to an institution that imprisons, tortures, and ** athletes, and Uday is addicted to ** and does everything he can. He is obsessed with chasing women like a drug addict, from female classmates in elementary school to newlywed women and girls on the street.
Uday's absurd and brutal acts have aroused deep resentment and resentment among the Iraqi people.
In Iraq, there is a figure known as the "devil", and as long as he does not die for a day, Iraq will never be at peace. In order to eliminate this "devil", the people began to privately organize armed forces and carry out assassination operations.
However, due to the sheer security forces around Uday, these assassination attempts failed. In order for this "devil" not to continue to do evil, Uday decided to find a stand-in for himself.
The first thing that came to his mind was his classmate Latif Yahya. After becoming Uday's "shadow", Latif began his new life.
Due to his resemblance to Uday, Latif is often mistaken for the legend in the crowd. However, the trajectory of his life is diametrically opposed to Uday's. During his middle school years, Latif witnessed Uday's arrogance but never crossed paths with him.
Whenever someone mistakes him for Uday, he feels a strong rejection. Despite his similar body size, Latif has a very different personality from Uday. Uday is brutal by nature, while Latif is full of kindness.
In school, he never used his noble background to bully others, but studied hard and studied hard, hoping to contribute to the development of the country. After graduating from university, Latif enrolled in Baghdad University to pursue a law degree.
After that, he responded to the call of the country and joined the Iraqi army as a brave soldier. Although his life was full of challenges, he always stood up to his beliefs and proved to the world with his actions that he exists for the well-being of the country and its people.
I haven't seen you for a long time, have you missed me? ”
Although he was bored with Uday's heart, Latif recognized his problem because he was afraid of his identity. However, when Latif is revealed to have been transferred to protect Uday, he is hugely disappointed.
Then, Uday's true purpose shocked Latif. He even wanted Latif to be his stand-in. Faced with this request, Latif did not hesitate to refuse, because Uday's notoriety was well known, and becoming his stand-in would not only lead to the danger of assassination at any time, but would also be hated by the whole country.
This requirement is contrary to Latif has always held on to his beliefs.
Furious at Latif's refusal, Uday immediately ordered him to be detained and tortured. After three days and three nights of torture, Uday told Latif that if he agreed to his demands, he would be released and enjoy what he had, but that if he refused, he would continue to be tortured and his family would be in danger.
Under Uday's threats, Latif was forced to compromise and began a life of fear. Latif is becoming"The Devil's Shadow"Later, he not only faced the tyranny of Uday, but also had to prevent himself from being attacked by the people who mistook him for Uday.
Uday and Latif are surprisingly close. Every day before going out, Latif wears the same clothes as Uday, even the hairstyle and tie are not left behind.
In order to make the two more alike, Uday also asked someone to guide Latif in walking movements, imitate tone and demeanor, and even include bad habits such as smoking, drinking, and gambling. All this makes their image more and more similar.
Sometimes, Latif can't even tell who is who is himself or Uday when he looks in the mirror. At one point, Latif was in Uday's office helping him sort through his papers, when suddenly a middle-aged man barged in, raised a gun and pointed it at him, claiming that he had defiled his daughter.
This man is going to die with Latif because he can't tell Latif apart from Uday.
Before Latif could come to his senses, Uday had already rushed out from behind and fired several shots at the middle-aged man, ruthlessly eliminating him. This sudden bloody scene made Latif, despite his experience in the army, feel extremely shocked and restless.
After that, whenever a dangerous mission arose, Uday would send Latif to carry it out. Once, in recognition of the heroic performance of the troops in the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein ordered Uday to go to the front line to "comfort the three armies."
But with another assassination in mind, Uday asked Latif to go in his place. Before Latif set out, Uday told him to bring back some of his belongings. Although there was no assassination during the condolences process, Latif was deficient in his ability to loot belongings, and the matter was eventually exposed.
Uday's beating of Latif made him unbearable, and he decided not to be Uday's scapegoat anymore and began plotting his escape. At this time, Uday was dissatisfied that Saddam Hussein wanted to find a concubine, so he beat Saddam's confidant Kamal to death with a stick, which made Saddam angry and transferred the inheritance to his second son Quse.
Uday, who had lost his inheritance, had many enemies and had no time to care about Latif's whereabouts.
In June 1991, Latif managed to flee Iraq and took his family to Europe to start a low-key life. In 2003, when the U.S. military broke through Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, Uday had no time to escape, and engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with the U.S. military, and finally he and his younger brother Qusse died at gunpoint of the U.S. military, ending his life of crime.
After years of hiding in Britain after the fall of Saddam's regime, Latif finally mustered the courage to write his story into a memoir for the world to see.
In this memoir, Saddam Hussein and his two sons reveal that I managed to help this demon escape nine assassinations in the four years that I lived as a substitute.
My goal is not to protect his life, but to bring him to justice to the Iraqi people. After that, I started my life all over again, found a partner, started a family, and had children of my own.
In 2010, the crew of "The Devil's Stand-in" came to my door, and I provided some real information from their interview.
Latif: Return to Iraq to atone for the construction of the motherlandOn March 12, 2022, a reporter from the British Times interviewed Latif again, who escaped. He expressed his desire to return to Iraq, return to his hometown, and contribute to the construction of his homeland, so as to make up for the sins of "aiding and abetting" in the past.
His heart represents a deep love for his homeland and a sincere concern for his homeland.