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In Uganda, 'Last King of Scotland' Generates Blend of Pride and Pain
Forest Whitaker, center, who won a Best Actor Oscar on Sunday for his portrayal of Uganda's bloodthirsty former dictator, Idi Amin, visited a school in Masindi, Uganda, last week.
(Associated Press)
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This odd twist became the genesis for the novel "The Last King of Scotland," by Giles Foden, the main character of which, Nicholas Garrigan, bears a slight resemblance to Bob Astles, a former British soldier who was an adviser to Amin during his dictatorship. (The differences are not trifling: The fictitious Garrigan was a Scottish doctor who became known as Amin's "white monkey." Astles was an English aviation expert who became known as Amin's "white rat.")
Despite the film's flights into fiction, the movie was shot in Kampala, and for many Ugandans, the familiar hillsides and images of the parliament building lent it an air of reality. Museveni praised the film as accurate at the premiere here. And a senior adviser to Museveni, John Nagenda, said Monday that Whitaker's portrayal was "uncanny."
"The way he got into Amin was extraordinary," Nagenda said.
The recent run of African-themed films has focused heavily on horrors. "Hotel Rwanda," which was nominated for three Oscars in 2005, chronicled that nation's 1994 experience of genocide. "Yesterday," which was nominated for an Oscar the same year, tackled South Africa's devastating AIDS epidemic, and "Tsotsi," which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film last year, was about crime and redemption in South Africa.
"The Constant Gardener," for which Rachel Weisz won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar last year, was about the misdeeds of a fictional pharmaceutical company in Kenya and featured chilling scenes from Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region. Sierra Leone's brutal civil war, which ran from 1991 to 2002, provided the setting for "Blood Diamond," which was nominated for five Oscars but won none Sunday night.
Perhaps because of the downbeat themes, movies about Africa often have not generated as much box office business on the continent as more generic Hollywood blockbusters. But "Blood Diamond" has done well here, and crowds flocked to "The Last King of Scotland" through the weekend; it sold more tickets than the latest James Bond movie did in December. (Only "The Passion of the Christ," pushed heavily by Kampala's many churches, did better.)
"The Last King of Scotland" was also generating steady business in the tin shacks that show pirated DVDs of films throughout Uganda, reports said.
Some Ugandans said they hope to eventually see African lives rendered more fully in mainstream cinema, perhaps with an occasional romantic comedy mixed in with the agonizing historical dramas. But for Ugandans too young to have clear memories of Amin's reign, "The Last King of Scotland" gave them a welcome dose of insight into their own national history.
"After seeing the movie," said Alice Mwesigwa, 32, "it was, 'Wow, this is real.' "
