Saddam (2006)

SADDAM is the story of two men, Antonio Lo Russo and Mauro Loiacono, who joined a service company, Enterprises Srl, that operates in the Middle East. Antonio Lo Russo has experience with this type of mission, he was in Kosovo where he led an expedition that escorted human convoys, he was once in the army and so has military experience. Mauro Loiacono, instead, is a desperate man. He still lives with his parents near Turin but would like to build a house and leave home to live there with his girlfriend Anna. The problem is he doesn't have the money. He's the classic type who has no idea where he's going and, above all, has no dreams. The two men find themselves in Iraq, Antonio has chosen this way of life; Mauro somehow just drifted into it: a prospect of making lots of money quickly and the mirage of escaping a situation that holds no future. Their task is to guard a very important prisoner in Abu Ghraib prison. In reality neither of them know who is in the cell, the orders were eminently clear: no-one can enter the cell, anyone coming near it must be stopped. During their long stint of guard duty all Antonio and Mauro can do is play the guessing game. But they know they have a great responsibility: above all for Mauro, pressure from their superiors and the American military command they report to is beginning to get to him. But who, in reality, is locked up in cell fifty-one/A? The two men's sense of duty faces a tough test towards the end of Antonio's watch, with Mauro's nerves stretched to the limit and both of them feeling dead tired. Antonio suggests to his colleague that they disobey orders and enter the cell to take a photo: what if it really was Saddam Hussein in there?