Backstabbing for Beginners

Apparently a fictionalized account of Michael Soussan's 2008 memoir of the same name. Theo James stars as Michael Sulliivan, a 24-year-old hired for a high position at the United Nations to help administer the Oil-for-Food program in Iraq after the First Gulf War. He'll be a Special Assistant to the Under-Secretary-General (Ben Kingsley).

The seemingly naive Michael will soon find himself in the midst of massive corruption, kickbacks, yes-backstabbing, and even murder, with so many billions of dollars at stake. Some of the decision making by him and others had me often shaking my head in disbelief. Moving into the ridiculous, why did Kingsley's character "Pasha" find it necessary to use the "f" word in just about every sentence?

Overall, just not enough dramatic tension here to make this a really engrossing movie. It did have its moments but I can't rate it higher than fair.

As a movie the piece is nothing spectacular and as such might not capture the average movie fan but for us who like a movie based on real events this is pretty good, to me a true story based movie is almost always better than the fictional one. Before you go saying "you really believe there are 100% true movies" ill stop you right there, no, i do not, but you dont have to take the movie at face value it can inspire you to do your own research about the matter if you are interested. To be frank i dont think i (or you) ever actually heard a 100% true story, human memory is not 100%, rarely anything is, this was close enough to get the point across.

This was a very big scandal, there is a reviewer here on IMDB who stated it is a fictional movie and that he/she was actually involved in Food-for-Oil which was nothing but sunshine and rainbows. I have a hard time believing that. Why did the people involved fled, why did all those companies settled and paid enormous fines, just not to go thru a hassle of proving oneself innocent? I am sure there are very fine men and women in the UN who really try to help but any and every organization is susceptible to corruption and UN is no different, where there is power there is abuse of power.

I wish there were more movies that are doing scandals of the time past so we dont forget and dont let them repeat.

Everybody knew this was a corrupt operation - I was in Baghdad in 97 and met some UN observers one told me when she went to the warehouses to check and they were empty, her bosses said to her "shut up and take your money"....there were some highly moral people hi up in the UN though like Dennis Halliday, Hans von Sponeck and Jutta Burghardt, of WFP who like the other two resigned. A very shameful time for the UN and of course the people of Iraq who still suffer to this day. This story needs to be told and the film should be pushed but it wont be...........

My wife and I watched this movie on Amazon streaming. It is based on a book presumably accurate in its analysis of the situation in 2002 and 2003.

It was shortly after the 9/11 attacks in the USA, pressure was being put on Saddam Hussein, and one UN-backed program was "oil for food" program where Iraq would supply oil and in return would get food and medicines for the suffering population.

Theo James plays the lead character, Michael, who takes a job working for the UN. His immediate boss is Ben Kingsley as Pasha, a man from Cyprus who nominally was in charge of the program. When Michael writes a summary report, including the data showing up to 30% of the money was being skimmed off illegally, Pasha took those pages and immediately shredded them. PLus food and medicines were not being distributed evenly to those in need.

This movie isn't overly interesting in its style, but the story is interesting, to show how widespread corruption is in high places all over the world.

The movie backstabbing for beginners is not half as bad as some reviews have it. sure it does not invent the diplomacy thriller anew, but its solid handwork, a good production and the sets were good too. i was a bit irritated by ben kingsleys constant swearing, it would not befit a real high diplomat to use such foul language in public all the time. overall is a watchable film about a young idealistic guy getting assigned to a supposed dream job. but sooner than he imagined, he is caught up in the confusion that any multi billion dollar program and high politics bring along. whom can he believe? is it possible for one man to make a difference in a fight against corruption and greed? see for yourself