Saddam Hussein's big movie project
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2020
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1980 the Iraqi strongman, Saddam Hussein, tried to launch his country's entry into the world of movie making. He spent millions of dollars on an epic movie called Clash of Loyalties, filmed almost entirely on location in Iraq, and staring some of Britain's leading actors , including Oliver Reed, Helen Ryan and James Bolam. But soon after shooting of the film began, war erupted between Iraq and neighbouring Iran. Mike Lanchin speaks to the film's Iraqi-born British producer Lateif Jorephani and the Iraqi actor, Fatima al Rubai, about the ambitious project.
Photo Credit: Jorephani Productions
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds Hello and welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service, |
| 0:40.0 | first-hand accounts of events that have shaped our world. I'm Mike Lanchin. Today we're going back to Iraq in |
| 0:46.3 | 1980 when the country's leader, Saddam Hussein, commissioned what he hoped would be a major blockbuster, |
| 0:53.1 | starring a host of British acting legends. |
| 0:57.7 | The movie, Clash of Loyaltys, |
| 1:00.1 | was filmed almost entirely on location in Iraq, just as war was breaking out with Iran. |
| 1:06.0 | I've been speaking to two people who are involved in the ambitious production. |
| 1:21.0 | Sadh Dada Houssain was very enthusiastic about encouraging Iraq to become a center of international to become a center of international film productions. |
| 1:25.0 | Clash of loyalties was the first of a long list of major international films we were going to make in Iraq. If you will, |
| 1:34.0 | Bollywood on Tigris. |
| 1:36.0 | British Iraqi producer Latif Jurifani |
| 1:39.0 | had been in the movie business since the 1950s |
| 1:42.0 | and had made several small budget films in the Middle East. |
| 1:45.6 | And so when he was approached with a much bigger proposition by his contacts in Saddam Hussein's |
| 1:50.4 | government, he was delighted. |
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