Backstabbing for Beginners

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source: Backstabbing for Beginners

What an unfortunate title for this movie, it sounds like it would be about a teenager who got unfriended on Facebook or some such thing. The story is actually a lot more substantial, dealing with the corruption involved with the United Nations administering it's Oil For Food program in 2003 while Iraq was under sanction by the U.S. and Britain. It's a classic case of moral relativism that states that vast sums of money diverted to dishonorable leaders is generally okay if some good can be accomplished for the greater population. Sure, but how much greater would the effort be if it was administered by honest administrators. Not supposed to ask. Ben Kingsley was solid in his portrayal of the UN Undersecretary General in charge of Oil For Food, Costa 'Pasha' Passaris, while Theo James appeared to be a bit out of his element as the new kid on the block. At twenty four years of age, he was just naive enough to believe that his work would 'matter', a pretty simplistic buzzword for those whose ideals outweigh real life circumstances. It was admirable that he felt conflicted about his position and that he eventually did the right thing by going to the Wall Street Journal to expose the nastiness going on. It's more than admirable that he didn't get whacked at some point along the way like his predecessor in the job. I recall only vaguely the outcry over the massive corruption exposed by this incident back in the early 2000's. It convinced me, among other issues, of how ineffective and counter productive the United Nations can be in virtually every area in which it participates. One of the movie's end credits stated how the exposé led to numerous reforms at the UN, making me wonder how many days that might actually have lasted.

In the bonus segment of the DVD of "Backstabbing for Beginners," writer-director Per Fly described his goal of capturing in the diplomatic world "the grey area of life where every human being exists." He also observed that corruption is the only way of life in the "system" of geopolitical affairs. The film was adapted from the Michael Soussan book that exposed the duplicity and greed behind the United Nations multi-billion-dollar "Oil-for-Food" program that was rife with bribes, kickbacks, and sweetheart deals. The corruption was so widespread that it involved two thousand companies and fifty-six countries. The screenplay depicted the intersection of the shady "Oil-for-Food" operation with the equally duplicitous pretext for the United States to invade Iraq. Occasionally, documentary footage is interspersed with the action of the film. Initially, Per Fly wanted to make a documentary film, then reshaped his screenplay into the fictionalized version of the story. But the blending of documentary and fictional styles is effective for this subject. The film was successful in evoking the director's vision of the "grey area" of characters who may be simultaneously humanitarians and crooks. This dialectic is no more apparent than in the character of the diplomat Pasha, brilliantly performed by Ben Kingsley. Pasha has genuine concern for feeding and providing medical care to starving children. But that does not prevent him as well from becoming a cynic and a grifter. One might even argue that Michael, the idealistic young protégé of Pasha, also lives in a grey area where he will sacrifice a vital piece of incriminating evidence in order to save Nashim, with whom he has fallen in love. Still, the young diplomat whom Pasha calls "The Kid" has enough integrity to continue the fight for of peace and justice. It is unfortunate that we do not have many examples of "The Kid" in current diplomatic affairs. But when they do surface, it is a cause for celebrating our humanity and the desire to move closer to a peaceful world order.

Based upon a true story Michael Sullivan (Theo James) takes a job at the United Nations with supervisor Pasha (Ben Kingsley) a United Nations Under Secretary who runs the Oil for Food Program and Michael eventually learns how "diplomacy" really works. Michael learns that there is corruption everywhere he looks, but goes along with Pasha's "don't rock the boat" philosophy because Pasha wants to keep his job and also to insure the funding continues for the Program. This is really NOT an entertaining story. It's more like a documentary about the corruption within the United Nations, and sometimes it's difficult to follow characters that come and go and we are not sure what they do except to say most are up to no good. All you really have to do is to follow Michael and his take on everything. Remember, he took the job to make a difference in the world, but is constrained by Pasha and his don't rock the boat philosophy. Michael's change of heart started with Michael befriending and defending Nashim (Belcim Bilgin) a Kurdish woman who fears for her life if she is found out to be Kurdish in Iraq. After the attack by the US on Iraq, Michael sees the opportunity to get the evidence for all the corruption that involves many well known companies and other countries who greased Saddam's hand. Ben Kingsley plays Pasha perfectly and we all know he is guilty and we wonder how Michael will expose him and all the rest. And this is where the major backstabbing takes place because Pasha is found guilty as well. Pasha admits to Michael later on that this was well-played by Michael. Notable: Jacqueline Bisset as Christina Dupre, who is opposed to the Food for Oil program because she knows the program is corrupt and all the food never gets to the people and worse the drugs that are supposed to help cure illness are so out of date many deaths come about because of that. Stay tuned to the end to see statements about what happened to everyone. An aside: To see more backstabbing incidents, watch any daytime Soap on TV. Ha ! Again, not entertaining, but quite informative and this is a difficult story to follow, but Pasha does make it interesting. (7/10) Violence: Yes. Sex: No Nudity: No. Humor: Some. Language: Yes. Rating: B

Corruption, Corruption everywhere. Terrific movie about inner working of UN aid program in Iraq prior to the 2003 US invasion. Top notch acting.

This film tells the story of a young diplomat who navigates an impossible maze of lies, deceit and death threats. The diplomat is in a huge dilemma, but he navigates the situation well and ends up way more fortunate than many others in the film. The film is a little slow, and can use tighter editing. Still, it is an interesting film to watch.