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Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait (1974)

Documentary | 92 minutes / 86 minutes (MUBI)
3,59 41 votes

Genre: Documentary

Duration: 92 minuten / 86 minuten (MUBI)

Alternative titles: Barbet Schroeder's General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait / Barbet Schroeder's General Idi Amin Dada / General Idi Amin Dada

Country: France / Switzerland

Directed by: Barbet Schroeder

IMDb score: 7,3 (2.108)

Releasedate: 29 May 1974

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Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait plot

"A self portrait."

In 1971 Uganda was taken over by the self-proclaimed dictator General Idi Amin Dada. His reign of terror cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The film depicts the infamous tyrant as a dynamic, charming and very dangerous man whose fanatical neuroses could grip an entire country.

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avatar van T.O.

T.O.

  • 2413 messages
  • 2790 votes

A beautiful picture of an actually archetypal autocrat.

Justification for a dictatorial regime through incoherent revolutionary theories, the intolerance of dissent, and the cultivation of fear—it all comes to the fore. The cabinet "meeting" shown is telling in this regard. The strong emphasis on military power completes the picture.

And of course, the delusions of grandeur. The man is a champion athlete in multiple disciplines and explains to doctors what to do. This leads to hilarious moments that could go straight into a movie like The Dictator. The best example is probably the scene in the swimming pool

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original

avatar van blurp194

blurp194

  • 5487 messages
  • 4189 votes

After a century of colonialism, isn't it in part a deformed image of ourselves that Idi Amin Dada reflects?

A rather absurd documentary about Amin—indeed, a self-portrait, with all the involvement Amin himself had in its creation. His self-image projected onto the world, leaving us, the viewers, to form our own opinions about it, with scant help from the narrator. It's painful to watch him act the part, tell lame jokes—while his audience frantically laughs at just the right moments, out of terror rather than mirth.

As a cabinet of curiosities, the film is somewhat satisfactory, but like The Last King of Scotland (2006), I find it falls significantly short in its treatment of Amin and his dictatorship. Although it's perhaps impossible to capture so much absurdity in a film. Still, the characterization as a jovial uncle with a touch of humor overlooks the fact that his regime cost the lives of 100,000 to 500,000 people, and that he reportedly enjoyed contributing to that personally.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original