[yasr_overall_rating]
A young program coordinator at the United Nations stumbles upon a conspiracy involving Iraq’s oil reserves.
When I read the title I thought I’d be heading into a “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” type of outing. “Backstabbing for Beginners” is based on a true story that is a tiny thread of the seemingly endless bloody legacy that is the Iraq War. We start off in New York City in 2002, the existential tumultuous time being Post-9/11 and Pre-Iraq Invasion. At the UN headquarters, we meet Michael played by Theo James. He’s the son of a UN worker who was killed in the Beirut bombing. Michael was inspired by his father’s life and death to join the UN. He is recruited to be special assistant to Pasha (Ben Kingsley), the Under-Secretary-General, running the largest humanitarian relief program in the world. The task is feeding the entire nation of Iraq, populated by nearly 20 million people. Mysteriously, Michael’s predecessor was run down and killed in an Iraqi back alley. Michael explains the Oil-for-Food program was implemented after the Gulf War. Saddam’s citizens took the worst toll of economic sanctions that led to starvation and disease due to lack of basic access to supplies. The Oil-for-Food plan helped the Iraqi citizens get the supplies and food they needed whilst the UN kept a watchful eye on Saddam’s market oil prices and potential weapon development.
Pasha knew Michael’s father and is keen to take him under his wing. Pasha emphasizes to Michael the necessity of the program and to be quiet and listen. His first day on the job and he’s immediately tasked to join Pasha on a red-eye to Baghdad. They are visiting children who are bedridden from diseases that would normally be curable or treatable. In an emotional scene, Pasha is brought to tears by a girl who remains gentle and positive although she’s fighting for her life. After becoming quite close with an attractive Iraqi translator named Nashim (Belçim Bilgin), she warns him that his predecessor was killed for encrypted information he discovered. After receiving the information, Michael is approached by an Iraqi special security agent spouting veiled threats and attempting to recruit him with an envelope stuffed with cash. Michael can’t shake the feeling that he might be next.
Refreshingly, the story covers the important near century-long oppression and horrible chemical massacre of the Kurds. The Kurds have long struggled to have a strong and respected place in the Middle East. It seems many, including the current Erdogan-led Turkish government, want them wiped off the planet. Kurdish people are prominently located on the fringes of four major countries: Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. They have autonomy in Northern Iraq and sit on some lucrative oil reserves. The Kurds have been heavily involved in trying to make parts of Assad’s Syria autonomous as well. They have actually been major allies of the US government, just the other day the YPG Kurdish forces captured a terror cell leader in Syria. He a was one of Bin Laden’s primary contacts for the September 11th attacks.
Unfortunately, the story is not nearly as compelling or immediate as the UN scandal and the ensuing Invasion it’s based on. The focal point being capturing an encrypted hard drive is routinely rote and at times boring. The Iraqi locations were filmed in Morocco and Jordan which luckily have the ancient buildings, the historical atmosphere, and is actually in the Middle East. The lighting of city scenes at night have a beautiful yellow hue that forms around the fluorescent lights pouring out into the dry desert sky. Besides that, there are not many technical or creative routes taken to give us a different journey. I’m very happy they showed the consequences of purging Saddam and the incendiary power vacuum that is still being fought for today. Ultimately, it falls short of its goal but I’m all for more stories about the Middle East that don’t submit to revisionist propaganda.
Available on Blu-ray & DVD Tuesday, April 24th
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