The Last King of Scotland (From Chorley Citizen)

The Last King of Scotland

1:14pm Wednesday 25th October 2006

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The Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was a fan of Hitler, a murderer of 300,000 and perhaps even a cannibal. But one thing he was not - the bumbling buffoon much of the world made him out to be.

The Last of Scotland, the British Oscar hope that opened the 50th London Film Festival on October 18, exposes the calculating charm that allowed Amin to get away with it all.

Forest Whitaker deserves an Oscar for his barnstorming performance as the magnetic tyrant who called himself, among other things, the "King of Scotland".

Set against the nightmarish backdrop of 1970s Uganda, Amin's bloody tale is told through the eyes of a fictitious Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy).

Fresh out of university, Garrigan goes to Uganda to save lives at a remote clinic - only to become Amin's personal physician. Slowly he becomes entangled in a deadly web of charisma, until he is like the president's own son.

But it cannot last - especially once Garrigan starts an affair with Amin's youngest wife Kay (a luscious yet vulnerable Kerry Washington).

Tension builds as Garrigan, too, bears the brunt of the dictator's increasingly mad rants amidst more and more disappearances.

In the eight years after he seized power in a coup, Amin's death squads wiped out entire villages of "opponents". So many bodies were cast into the Nile that they had to be fished out to prevent the ducts of a nearby dam from clogging up.

Exiles said Amin kept severed heads in his refrigerator, fed corpses to crocodiles and had one of his wives dismembered. He was even accused of cannibalism.

First backed by the British as a "splendid type" and later brushed off as an eccentric buffoon, the world did nothing while Amin single-handedly plunged his country into inflation rates of 200%.

Plagued by delusions - some say caused by syphillis - Amin threw out Uganda's 40,000-80,000 Indians and Pakistanis, reportedly after receiving a message from God during a dream.

When foreign relations with Britain broke down, he granted himself the title "Conqueror of the British Empire" in solidarity with the Scots.

He had an odd affinity for the Scottish nation - he employed a personal bagpipe player and took to wearing kilts.

Under the direction of Kevin Macdonald, who got a Bafta and an Oscar for his documentaries One Day In September and Touching The Void, the cast rises from relative obscurity to deliver career-defining acts in this film.

Better-known as a cop in the police series The Shield, Whitaker captures the full terror and charm of Amin.

McAvoy, who won the rising star award at the 2006 Baftas after his role as Mr Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, stands his ground as the virile young physician.

Gillian Anderson (X-files) also makes a noteworthy appearance as the wife of another doctor and Garrigan's initial love interest.

Exquisite cinematography captures the beauty of dark, magical Africa and its people, highlighting the horror of Amin's brutality all the more.

Like Amin, The Last King of Scotland pulls you into its web, holding you captive right until its final, haunting unravelling.

By Martina Smit.

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