ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS: 1. Production information It was supposed to be a wild adventure in a far-off country, but when a naive young doctor arrives in 1970’s Uganda – hoping for fun, sun and to lend a helping hand --he finds himself instead on a shocking ride into the darkest realm on earth: the human heart. 2. Into a Dictator’s Heart of Darkness: The Story of THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND How would you respond to the seductive influence of power? Would you bend or forget your own moral code to achieve it? What happens to someone who starts with good intentions and ends up becoming a blood thirsty individual? 3. A Man of Shocking Extremes and Contradictions: Forest Whitaker Portrays Idi Amin There are few names in history as recognizable as Idi Amin. He has joined Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Sadam Hussein, among others, in the ranks of dictators who seemingly knew no human bounds. But Amin was also a unique case – a one-time boxer and soldier who climbed his way up from literally nothing, charmed the nation with his vibrant pride and personality and appeared to many to be a newly independent Uganda’s greatest hope for becoming a truly African nation. 4. A Fun-Loving Young Doctor Trapped in a Nightmare: James McAvoy as the Fictional Nicholas Garrigan Just as important as the role of Idi Amin to THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND is the wholly opposite part of the fun-loving young doctor who has no idea what he’s getting into when he agrees to become Amin’s personal physician. 5. Two Women in Idi Amin’s Uganda: Gillian Anderson and Kerry Washington Join The Cast Even before Nicholas Garrigan becomes involved with Idi Amin, he is stirring up the pot – starting a sexual affair with the mission clinic doctor’s beautiful and lonely wife, Sarah 6. Into Kampala: Shooting in Uganda Most of THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND was shot in and around Kampala, Uganda, in a city that has seen more than its share of troubles in recent years, yet today is one of Africa’s most bustling and unique urban centers --built on seven fertile hills and lined with examples of stunning modern architecture. 7. Probing the Scars of The Past: Ugandans Respond to THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND Though he left Uganda in 1979 for exile in Saudi Arabia and passed away in 2003, Idi Amin’s legacy continues to reverberate strongly in Uganda. Nearly every citizen of the country was changed in some way by his rule, so at first, Kevin Macdonald worried about rousing emotions and memories better left untouched. 8. The Facts Behind the Fiction: About Idi Amin’s Uganda THE LAST KING OF A SCOTLAND is a fictional thriller --but behind the suspense lies the very real story of Uganda under the rule of Idi Amin.

Into Kampala: Shooting in Uganda

Most of THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND was shot in and around Kampala, Uganda, in a city that has seen more than its share of troubles in recent years, yet today is one of Africa’s most bustling and unique urban centers --built on seven fertile hills and lined with examples of stunning modern architecture.

For Ugandan consultant to the film Charles Mulekwa, it seemed that THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND could provide a fresh and important new view of a city and country most Westerners have never seen outside of news clips. “I was so happy to work on this film because when I first met Kevin Macdonald, he said, ‘when I make this movie I want to show the beauty of Uganda, and I’m not just going to show the kind of stuff you see on the news with sickness and starving children, because I also want to show the best parts of Uganda.’ I was very happy about this and in the final film you see the good, the bad and the ugly of Uganda, which I think is fair enough!”

Throughout, the filmmakers were able to use many authentic locations, including Mulago Hospital, once the crown jewel of Uganda’s health care system under Amin; the Ugandan Parliament building in central Kampala; and the famed Entebbe Airport, where a hostage crisis riveted the world in the 1970s. Still for all its cinematic potential, logistics in Uganda were in constant chaos, simply because the country isn’t used to any film production at all.

“The thing that truly saved us in Uganda is that everybody in the cast and crew embraced the huge challenges of shooting there, and embraced working with people who haven’t done films before, and did so with incredible energy and good humor,” says Andrea Calderwood.

On the very first day of shooting, an assortment of almost comical snafus began. Recalls Calderwood: “For one shot, we had all these action vehicles and extras ready to go and the ambulance wouldn’t start. It turned out that somebody had siphoned out the gasoline over night so we had to actually push the ambulance into the shot -the very first shot of the film. There were so many little things everyday that might hold us up. A lot of the vehicles we used were very old and hadn’t been touched for years, so they didn’t drive properly. Gasoline often disappeared. A lot of the extras had never been involved in a film before, so things took twice as long. Yet the crew had such fantastic spirit and I think they all felt very proud of what they accomplished with the film.”

Charles Steel felt equally proud of the exchange that took place between the Western crew and dozens of enthusiastic African trainees who worked on the film. “It has been very rewarding helping to train Ugandans in the craft of filmmaking,” he says. “Sometimes it was difficult and frustrating, but at the end of the day it has been a very enriching experience. I hope in some way that spirit and the synergy of different cultures working together translates into the film.”

At other times, the filmmakers were overcome with emotion at witnessing the stark reality of life around them. Says Calderwood: “When we were filming in Mulago Hospital it was quite over crowded and there were a lot of very ill people there and dead bodies were being wheeled past us while we were working. It’s moments like those when it really hit home that, although we were making a fictional film, we’re also telling a real story where there’s real suffering and tragedy around us all the time. It was a constant reminder of the significance of the story.”

To provide an illuminating view of Uganda as well as the visual tension of a thriller in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, Kevin Macdonald collaborated closely with cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, who is best known for his work on the Dogme films of Thomas Vinterberg and Lars Von Trier, as well as for Danny Boyle’s acclaimed tale of apocalypse, 28 DAYS LATER. Mantle has shot several times in Africa and Uganda – including for the surreal “flying sickness” sequence in Thomas Vinterberg’s IT’S ALL ABOUT LOVE --and came to the project with a strong sense of the country’s vast extremes and physical beauty.

“I wanted to work on this film because I thought it was an excellent script, with a mix of entertainment, suspense and an examination of extreme behavior --and I also saw a lot of visual possibilities in it,” says Mantle of his initial reaction. Once he began working with Macdonald, he found a creative synergy as well. “Kevin and I both come from a documentary backgrounds and I think that makes us more willing to go for an eccentric, imperfect look at things. We both always have our antenna up for the unusual and the unexplored,” he says.

Part of Mantle’s mission was giving the film a strong, gritty style that would place it securely in the realm of contemporary thrillers despite covering events that took place in the 70s. Notes Charles Steel: “Anthony is a genius and the look he and Kevin created has a much edgier feel than what you would normally expect in a classic story about Africa. They made a point of not working with dollies and cranes, but used Steadicams and a much freer, flowing kind of style which, coupled with the performances, created something very intense and beautiful.”

For Mantle, shooting in Uganda was key. “If we had shot in South Africa or Kenya we could never have gotten that essential magic of being in the place where all this happened,” he says. “It’s something that I think is visible in the film, though you can’t really put your finger on it. There’s an energy around the camera and around every scene. Shooting in a Parliament room filled with bullet holes or sitting in chair that Amin may or may not have sat in made things constantly interesting.”

Mantle’s spontaneity and flexibility also meant he was able to change gears on the fly and tackle the challenges of shooting in a Third World nation. Says Kevin Macdonald: “Anthony has a reputation for being unflappable in any situation and that was very much borne out by the reality of our production. With very few resources and little time, he made the film look wonderful.”

While Mantle loved shooting the landscapes of Uganda, he also found that Forest Whitaker’s face had its own unique geographic features to be explored. “Looking at Forest through the lens is very powerful,” he observes. “I noticed that there is even a split between the right side of his face and the left side of his face. There’s an extraordinary amount of dimension in each of his expressions and it’s not always about the words. I think his portrait is so effective because he’s such a mellow, gentle person on the surface so when he explodes into the more irrational Idi, it’s truly monstrous.”

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Probing the Scars of The Past: Ugandans Respond to THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Though he left Uganda in 1979 for exile in Saudi Arabia and passed away in 2003, Idi Amin’s legacy continues to reverberate strongly in Uganda. Nearly every citizen of the country was changed in some way by his rule, so at first, Kevin Macdonald worried about rousing emotions and memories better left untouched.