Saturday September 29        The Last King of Scotland                     15 certificate

USA, 2007 Directed by Kevin Macdonald, Starring Forrest Whitaker & James McAvoy, 123 minutes

An enormous and justified success at this year major award ceremonies, The Last King of Scotland is a gripping portrait of 1970’s Uganda and Idi Amin. It tells the story of a naïve and idealistic Scottish medic, Nicholas Garrigan (McAvoy), who travels to Uganda to work with the poor, but meets Amin, a man with a passion for all things Scottish. Amin flatters him with attention and the promise of money and influence. Seduced by the leader’s overwhelming charisma, Garrigan initially revels in their friendship. But by degrees he becomes aware of the realities of Amin’s rule, and increasingly trapped at the right hand of someone he comes to realise is a monster.  Viewers may recall the director’s first film Touching the Void, and here once again Macdonald demonstrates his capacity for edge of the seat suspense, mounting tension, and unglossy naturalism. But technical virtuosity aside, this is Whitaker’s film. His masterful performance portrays Amin’s charisma – his comic banter with the outside world, his bizarre rhetoric and effusive enthusiasm - but also the pathological dictator beneath the surface, a man at the helm of a reign of terror, with a murderous contempt of others, in particular those closest to him.

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