Filmmaker Per Fly’s “Backstabbing for Beginners” is a good political thriller, while some situations seem a bit forced and some that seem unlikely, it’s still a fascinating film about one of the biggest scandals involving the United Nations.
© 2018 Lions Gate. All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Backstabbing for Beginners
DATE OF FILM RELEASE: 2018
DURATION: 108 Minutes
BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p (2:40:1), English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Subtitles: English SDH and Spanish
COMPANY: Lions Gate
RATED: R
RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2018
Based on the Memoir by Michael Soussan
Directed by Per Fly
Screenplay by Per Fly, Daniel Pyne
Produced by Daniel Bekerman, Malene Blenkov, Lars Knudsen, Nikolaj Vibe Michelsen, Jay Van Hoy
Associate Producer: Amy BonFleur, Wes Jones
Executive Producer: Robert Ogden Barnum, Stephen Bowen, Andrew Corkin, Mark Gingras, Jeff Kalligheri, Mike Landry, Ethan Lazar, Ole Christian Madsen, Gregory P. Shockro, Adam Skomorowski
Music by Todor Kobakov
Cinematographer: Brendan Steacy
Casting by Mourad Barouche, John Buchan, Jason Knight, Nicolas Ronchi
Production Design by Niels Sejer
Art Direction: Abdellah Baadil, Monica Sallustio
Set Decoration by Mary Kirkland, Mohamed Rakaa
Costume Design by Ruth Secord
Starring:
Theo James as Michael
Ben Kingsley as Pasha
Jacqueline Bisset as Christina Dupre
Rossif Sutherland as Trevor
Rachel Wilson as Lily
Brian Markinson as Rasnetsov
Belcim Bilgin as Nashim
Aidan Devine as Justin Cutter
Theo James and Ben Kingsley star in a heart-pounding thriller following the real-life corruption scandal in the UN Oil-For-Food program.
Back in 1995, the United Nations began their “Oil-for-Foo Programme (OIP)” which would allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine and other humanitarian needs for Iraqi citizens.
What was supposed to be a program for good became a scheme as there were individuals who were offered oil contracts through the OIP and these contracts would be sold to the open market and the seller were allowed to keep a transaction fee. And the seller would refund the Iraqi government a certain percentage of that commission.
But an American diplomat named Michael Soussan would blow the lid off the scheme but also would implicate his boss, the head of the UN’s OIP, Benon Vahe Sevan and the Oil-for-Food Programme was one of the largest scandals of the time.
Michael Soussan would go on to write his own memoir and a film adaptation of the memoir would lead to the political thriller “Backstabbing for Beginners” written and directed by Danish filmmaker, Per Fly (“Monica Z”, “The Bench”, “The Inheritance”).
The film would star Theo James (“Divergent”, “Insurgent”, “Allegiant”, “Underworld Awakening”), Ben Kingsley (“Ghandi”, “Schindler’s List”, “Iron M an 3”), Jacqueline Bissett (“Bullitt), “Domino”, “Murder on the Orient Express”), Belcim Bilgin (“Last Stop: Salvation”, “Sadece Sen”, “The Butterfly’s Dream”) and more.
And now “Backstabbing for Beginners” will be available on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate.
The film would begin with a graduate named Michael Sullivan (portrayed by Theo James), explaining how he would pursue a career as a diplomat, a job that his father did (and killed in a bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut). Because he wanted to make a difference.
And eventually would be hired for the United Nations’ Oil-for-Food Programme (OIP) to help Iraq civilians survive the impact from economic sanctions.
Michael would be hired by Pasha, the head of the OIP and he would oversee the use of 6.5 billion petrodollars and feed an entire nation.
After the first day on the job, he is approached by Justin Cutter from the CIA and that there are bad guys profiting from the OIP, and they need him to keep his eyes and ears open and report if there is anything bad happening.
Michael came into the job knowing that there were political struggles within the OIP because the huge amount of money involved in the program.
When Michael arrives with Pasha to their Baghdad hotel, he meets with Nashim (portrayed by Belcim Bilgin), a translator of how Michael’s predecessor did not die of a car accident and that he was murdered because of what he uncovered. And she warns him that he should be very careful.
Meanwhile, Christina Dupre (portrayed by Jacqueline Bisset) is a U.N. rival of Pasha and she is against the OIP program due to the corruption. While Pasha tries to get Michael to “Not to lie, never to lie. But to choose our facts, our truths, with the utmost care”.
As Michael arrives to his hotel room, he notices that he is being followed and inside his hotel, he finds men waiting for him trying to bribe him.
Alarmed by what is going on, Pasha passes it off as natural, as he should expect people trying to bribe him.
As Michael gets closer with Nashim, who explains how she is a survivor of Saddam Hussein’s campaign against the Kurds, she then tells him about the corruption within the OIP and what happened to his predecessor, who received information about corruption that is happening at the highest level and has a list of names.
His predecessor gave her a USB with names and organizations that are involved in the corruption but the USB is encrypted and she needs Michael to find someone to break the encryption.
While they are heading back home, they are stopped on the road by the same men who were inside his hotel room.  The men shoot and kill their driver and the other men who came with them and give Michael a warning. As Michael and Nashim are able to leave, Nashim is worried because her secret of being Kurdish may implicate her as being a spy and she can be killed.
As Michael gets further into his job, he doesn’t know who he should trust.  Can he trust his boss, Pasha? Can he trust Nashim? And what is on the encrypted USB drive?
VIDEO:
“Backstabbing for Beginners” is presented in 1080p High Definition (2:40:1). The film shows great detail on closeups and for the most part, the film looks great. Good use of natural lighting and the film looks great during outdoor scenes and the film looks very good in HD. I didn’t notice any major banding issues or artifacts during my viewing of the film.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Backstabbing for Beginners” is presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1. The film is dialogue and music-driven. But surround channels are well-utilized for the small amount of action sequences in the film.
Subtitles are in English SDH and in Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Backstabbing for Beginners” comes with an eight minute featurette “The Truth Behind ‘Backstabbing for Beginners'” featuring an interview with filmmaker Per Fly.
EXTRAS:
“Backstabbing for Beginners” comes with an UltraViolet code.
“Backstabbing for Beginners” is the political thriller based on the memoirs of Michael Soussan, an American diplomat and whistleblower that helped expose the corruption involved in the United Nations “Oil-for-Food Programme”.
A program that was to bring food to the people desperately needing it in Iraq after sanctions were imposed on the country and what was supposed to be oil for food, because the sellers of oil were never known, their was corruption involving Saddam Hussein, many organizations who were trying to use the program for nefarious reasons to get money and of course, corruption within the United Nations.
And there was much more to the corruption and mistakes made that is not even mentioned in the movie.
But one thing I’m not sure is how factual the film adaptation was to Michael Soussan’s memoirs. Did Soussan become romantically involved with a Kurdish woman, who may be acting as a spy? Or was this created for the character Michael Sullivan?
I understand that storylines do change and that often film adaptations are not 100% factual, if anything, there is always an inclusion of things to show great dire and also a romantic interest.
Nevertheless, while I found the film to be interesting and entertaining, there are certain things that maybe plausible but seem a bit forced in order to pair the character of Sullivan with a romantic interest and a character that would have fans caring about. But I found certain things that Michael was doing with friends, a bit hard to believe, considering he is often being followed and watched in the film.
I felt that Theo James did a good job of playing the stoic Michael Sullivan and Ben Kingsley as the corrupt UN head of the OIP program. It’s a shame that Jacqueline Bisset’s role was not further expanded upon.
But I wondered if Soussan was almost as carefree as Sullivan, a contrast to another whistleblower film such as “The Insider” starring Russell Crowe, which shows more fear of being watched and sign that something bad could have happened. You just never get the sense that Sullivan is worried later in the film. It’s almost a case of John Wayne bravado that his character tends to have and not sure if Michael Soussan was like that, considering the danger involved.
The Blu-ray featured solid picture quality, lossless audio was also good, as it was primarily a dialogue/music driven soundtrack. One special feature is included on the Blu-ray.
Overall, filmmaker Per Fly’s “Backstabbing for Beginners” is a good political thriller, while some situations seem a bit forced and some that seem unlikely, it’s still a fascinating film about one of the biggest scandals involving the United Nations.
