Giochi di potere

Michael Soussan's memoir of his experiences working for the UN during the Iraqi crisis has been transformed into a tightly woven screenplay by Daniel Pine and director Per Fly. The true story is at once enlightening, horrifying, and maddening - some truth about the degree of corruption on al levels of government not only in this country but also around the world.

Theo James takes on the role of Michal Soussan as he unravels the tale of the misappropriation of United Nations money in the Oil for Food program that was intended to supply food and medicine to the victims of Saddam Hussein's brutal madness in Iraq 2002 - 2003. The cast is uniformly excellent with the superb Ben Kingsley as the UN undersecretary Pasha in charge of the Oil for Food humanitarian effort to aid the desperate Iraqi citizens. He hires the somewhat naïve Michael Soussan to go to Baghdad to oversee the supposed infiltration of evil in the humanitarian program. Michael's naïveté fails to face the complex dealings of Christine Dupre (Jacqueline Bisset), the Kurdish Nashim (Belçim Bilgin), the evil Rasnetsov (Brian Markinson), and other characters portrayed by Rossif Sutherland, Rachel Wilson, Peshang Rad, among others.

The depth and extent of corruption in the manipulation of the billions of dollars sent for humanitarian aid but foiled by Hussein and the governments and big businesses of the world leading up to the attack on Iraq by President George Bush's included photomontage speech is horrifying. Yes, we all have heard and read about the extent of global corruption, but to watch it occur along with mass killings and degrading behaviors is staggeringly real and disgusting. Did the film need to be made? Yes, if we all care about somehow finding a means to end the greed and hypocrisy that still remains a global plague. Not an inspiring film, but a necessary one. And well done.

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.

It's predictable but interesting enough to see it through. Fails to name names other than the usual sacrificial scapegoat major organisations toss out to the wolves - I.E. press and public. The U.N. is generally considered a useless talking shop, but there's literally billions of pounds sloshing around it's various departments. This film retells what is the tip of the iceberg, add in national foreign aid programmes you understand why certain leaders of poor countries end up with more income than the nations GDP. To paraphrase Churchill, capitalism is awful but it's the best we've got. I do agree with others who mentioned the pointless even annoying expletives used by the Kingsley character. Some points yes it would have been effective, but you end up thinking is he some old school mafia boss or a U.N. under secretary.

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...........

The film gets a seven rating because Ben Kingsley's acting is first rate and never less than 1st rate and over all the story will hold your interest and has some twists to it, it will keep you guessing. The romantic parts of the movie feel like they were thrown in, like a focus group or a committee made the movie and the drama is suspended for those scenes. The dialogue and character development between Ben Kingsley and Theo James make the film worth watching. Pity that the entire script did not hold up as well as the better scenes. When you see of some of the uninspired fare that the streaming giants throw money at I say this is a worthy effort.