From the beginning of his brutal reign in Iraq, Saddam Hussein could claim an unusual credit: film producer. After Saddam became president in 1979, his cousin played him in The Long Days. The film dramatised his role in a failed 1959 attempt to assassinate Iraq’s then-prime minister, Abdul-Karim Qasim.
The film presented the new dictator as a hero. A few minutes in, a young Saddam calmly removes a bullet from his leg using a razor blade sterilised with fire. In his 2000 biography of Saddam, journalist Saïd Aburish called the story “an exaggeration of serious proportions”. He cited Saddam’s doctor, who said he had treated him only for superficial injuries.
