General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait
Général Idi Amin Dada : autoportrait
Barbet Schroeder
This documentary on the Ugandan president and dictator Idi Amin, portrays the caricature of power embodied by a man playing his own role and displaying his government before the eyes of a director who at no time takes sides or judges the situation.
With : Idi Amin Dada
Screenplay : Idi Amin Dada et Barbet Schroeder
Image : Nestor Almendros
Sound : Alain Sempé
Editing : Denise de Casabianca
Music : Idi Amin Dada
Screenplay : Idi Amin Dada et Barbet Schroeder
Image : Nestor Almendros
Sound : Alain Sempé
Editing : Denise de Casabianca
Music : Idi Amin Dada
Production : Le Figaro, Mara Films, O.R.T.F.
Distribution: Les films du Losange
Distribution: Les films du Losange
Breaking totally with his two previous films, Barbet Schroeder has made "a demystifying, yet frighteningly objective, portrait of an African dictator" (Serge Daney). Often compared to Alfred Jarry's Ubu, Idi Amin is a character who is both burlesque and worrying, naïve and cunning. With this almost ridiculous megalomaniac, laughter and fear mingle in the audience, the film becoming a satire on the Ugandan situation. Schroeder wanted to "take a real character and a fictional approach" (Barbet Schroeder). The title, Général Idi Amin Dada : autoportrait, is an allusion to the omnipotence of a president who only wants to reveal to the audience the highlights of his power and leadership.