Michael Sullivan, the young son of a diplomat killed when he was still a child, dreams of entering the world of international relations. His wish is fulfilled when he gets the job of coordinating the “Oil for Food” program run by United Nations undersecretary Pasha. After the invasion by the American troops of Iraq Michael is confronted with a multiplicity of problems also knowing on the field an interpreter of Kurdish ethnicity who will fall in love. Thanks to her, the suspicion that behind the project there is a huge round of corruption that is not just about Saddam and his now decayed regime.
What was the “Oil for Food” program? To follow the dynamics of this film (which is inspired by the true story of the UN official Michael Soussan that he himself narrated in the book “Backstabbing for Beginners, My Crash Course in International Diplomacy”) may be necessary even if a synthetic memo.
In 1996, to allow the Iraqi government to obtain foodstuffs for the population put to the test by the sanctions imposed on the country after the First Gulf War, the UN commenced a plan that included the purchase in favor of oil in order to allow monetary liquidity. At least 65% of the money actually went to the population turned into food but the remaining 35% was not spent only for administrative purposes. Saddam himself took advantage of the project on the private plane and so did many multinationals involved in the plan.
It was thanks to the testimony of Soussan / Sullivan that the large round of corruption was brought to light and led to the formal closure of the project in 2003. The director Per Fly (Danish as well as Danish are the origins of the protagonist of the story) translates into a thriller with veins from spy story that in fact was more a financial investigation that still had his ‘hero’. The Sunday Times has in fact reviewed his autobiography in these terms: “Soussan got the job of his dreams working for the United Nations at the most ambitious aid plan they have ever tried, however anyone familiar with the compatriot’s stories of Soussan, Hans Christian Andersen can expect that dark truths emerge from the most apparently innocent evidence.Also for the most cynical (…) this book will sound like a revelation “.