''Backstabbing for Beginners'' is a 2018

political thriller A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle, high stakes and suspense is the core of the story. The genre often forces the audiences to consider and understand the importance of politics. The s ...

film directed and co-written by

Per Fly Per Fly Plejdrup (born 14 January 1960) is a Danish film director, generally credited simply as Per Fly. He has made many films and television shows broadcast on Danish television. Per Fly's awards includes the Crown Prince Couple's Culture Prize ...

, and based on the eponymous memoirs of

Michael Soussan Michael Soussan (born 1973) is a Danish-born reporter, writer and whistleblower. He lives in Los Angeles, California. He became famous for his 2008 book ''Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy'', about the wide ...

. It follows the real life corruption scandal in the UN

Oil-for-Food Programme The Oil-for-Food Programme (OIP), established by the United Nations in 1995 (under UN Security Council Resolution 986) was established to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian needs f ...

, and stars Theo James and

Ben Kingsley Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, and tw ...

Plot

The film follows Michael Sullivan, the son of

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...

diplomat who died when Michael was young. Michael leaves a lucrative job at a large bank and lands his dream job as a diplomat with the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

(UN), in the fall of 2002. He is assigned to work as an assistant to Under-Secretary-General Costa "Pasha" Passaris, the head of the

, operated since 1995 to help the citizens of

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

without allowing the oil sales to boost

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

and his regime. On his first visit to Baghdad, local UN chief diplomat Christina Dupre makes it clear to Pasha that she is disturbed by the corruption in the programme, and plans to publish a report voicing her concerns. This is the first Michael hears of the problem, and over the course of the film he uncovers a major corruption scandal, whereby payoffs and bribes diverted $20 billion of the funds away from food and into the hands of companies, banks, officials of various governments, and officials of the UN itself, possibly including Pasha, so that Hussein can pocket over $1 billion of the funds. Michael falls in love with Nashim, a UN worker in Baghdad who reveals aspects of the corruption to Michael, while she covertly works to advance the cause of her own people, the

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...

of northern

. Pasha tries to teach Michael about the realities of diplomacy in a world filled with corruption, highlighting that $60 billion does make it into buying food and medicine for the people of Iraq. As more of the people around him are killed, including Nashim and Dupre, and as the corruption continues even after the programme was ''de jure'' terminated in 2003, following the Coalition Invasion of Iraq, a dejected Michael gathers evidence and takes it to ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''.

Cast

* Theo James as Michael *

as Costa Pasaris, a.k.a. Pasha (fashioned after

Benon Sevan Benon Vahe Sevan (born December 18, 1937 Nicosia, Cyprus) was the head of the United Nations' Oil-for-Food Programme, established in 1996 and charged with preventing Iraq's government from using the proceeds from oil exports for anything but food, ...

, the actual head of the United Nations' Oil-for-Food Programme) *

Belçim Bilgin Belçim Bilgin (born 31 January 1983) is a Turkish actress of Kurdish origin. Life She was born in Ankara, Turkey on 31 January 1983. She is the great grand niece of Sheikh Said who is known for the Sheikh Said Rebellion. According to her sta ...

as Nashim *

Jacqueline Bisset Winifred Jacqueline Fraser Bisset ( ; born 13 September 1944) is a British actress. She began her film career in 1965 and first came to prominence in 1968 with roles in '' The Detective'', '' Bullitt'', and ''The Sweet Ride'', for which she re ...

as Dupre *

Rossif Sutherland Rossif Sutherland (born September 25, 1978) is a Canadian actor. He, along with his brothers Angus and Roeg and half-brother Kiefer, are the sons of Donald Sutherland. Early life and education Sutherland was born in Vancouver, but lived in P ...

as Trevor *

Rachel Wilson Rachel Alexandra Wilson (born May 12, 1977) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her roles as Heather in ''Total Drama'' and Tamira Goldstein in ''Breaker High''. Life and career Wilson was born in Ottawa, Ontario. She started actin ...

as Lily *

Brian Markinson Brian Markinson (born September 1, 1961) is an American-Canadian actor who has appeared in a wide variety of films and television shows. Some of Markinson's best known roles include a U.S. Attorney General in ''Shooter'', an unscrupulous industr ...

as Rasnetsov *

Aidan Devine Aidan Devine is an English–Canadian film actor. He was born in England and immigrated with his family to Canada at the age of 15. He studied at Dawson College's Dome Theatre in Montreal, Quebec and began his acting career in Montreal. He ...

as Cutter * Daniela Lavender as Ruth Zekar Kal *Peshang Rad as Hassan *Kardo Razazi as Abhek

Production

The film was a Canada, United States and Denmark co-production.

Josh Hutcherson Joshua Ryan Hutcherson (born October 12, 1992) is an American actor and producer. Hutcherson began acting in the early 2000s and appeared in several commercials and minor film and television roles before landing his first major role in 2002 in ...

was originally set to star in the movie but dropped out and was replaced by Theo James. Filming started in March 2016 in

Marrakech Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrak ...

, Morocco, with other scenes shot in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

in April 2016. The production budget was $8 million.

Release

In June 2017, A24 and DirecTV Cinema acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. The film was released in Denmark on 18 January 2018. The film was released through DirecTV Cinema on 22 March 2018, before being a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unit ...

in the United States on 27 April 2018.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, ''Backstabbing for Beginners'' got approval from reviews. Frank Scheck called the film "an inert would-be thriller". Jessica Kiang of the ''

Variety Magazine ''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', based ...

'' has criticized forced intentions, that the filmmakers made, such as "romantic subplot,

hich in addition to it, was Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...

complete with heavy-breathing sex scene, and some of the more cloak-and-dagger-y intrigue show", which as she stated later is "to some extent Hollywood-izing a complicated and tragic real-world situation". Michael Rechtshaffen of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' said that "despite delivering few actual thrills, the fact-based ''Backstabbing for Beginners'' qualifies as an intelligent, well-crafted political thriller". Review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave the film 48 out of a 100, basing its score on 8 reviews.

References

External links

* {{Per Fly 2018 films 2018 independent films 2010s thriller films 2010s English-language films 2010s political thriller films A24 (company) films American films based on actual events American political thriller films Canadian films based on actual events Canadian political thriller films Danish political thriller films English-language Canadian films English-language Danish films Films about corruption Films about the United Nations Films based on memoirs Films directed by Per Fly Films set in Baghdad Films shot in Denmark Films shot in Morocco Films shot in Toronto Political films based on actual events Thriller films based on actual events 2010s American films 2010s Canadian films