"Should I ask him whether it's true or not?" That's the question I had for my editor regarding my interview with Latif Yahia, the Iraqi exile whose story about being the lookalike body-double for Saddam Hussein's psychotic son Uday has been parlayed into a best-selling book and a movie. "Probably," said the desk, "since there's been some controversy around that."
I needn't have bothered asking. The first thing Yahia says as he eyes me warily — even before he lights up the first of many chain-smoked cigarettes — is that he'd done some research, and why did The Japan Times run a piece in which it printed that he "claimed" to be Uday's body-double? What follows is a long diatribe against the pimps, paid agents, bitter ex-girlfriends, security services, and various other nefarious forces out to sully his reputation — which sounds quite paranoid unless, of course, you're in Yahia's shoes.
Allow me to back up a bit. Yahia, who fled Iraq in 1992, is back in the news because "The Devil's Double," a feature film based on his time living amid the Husseins as Uday's body-double, is in the theaters. The film is directed by Lee Tamahori, best known for his explosive urban Maori film "Once Were Warriors" in 1994. It features an impressive dual performance by Dominic Cooper, who plays both Yahia and Uday. The film chronicles the impunity with which Uday could rape newlywed brides and torture men on cocaine-fueled whims, while Yahia had to stand by stoically, and worse, pretend to be this monster in the eyes of others. Saddam's family hired many of these body-doubles for security reasons.