The Irish actor will play an American soldier in the film.
Barry Keoghan has been announced as one of the stars of an upcoming movie about Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, according to reports.
The Hollywood Reporter (THR) states that the film is titled Amo Saddam and will focus on Hussein’s final months alive where he stood trial for crimes against humanity, leading up to his execution.
Based on Will Bardenwerper’s book The Prisoner in His Palace: Saddam Hussein, His American Guards, and What History Leaves Unsaid, Keoghan is said to be playing an American soldier tasked with guarding the ousted dictator during his final days.
“In the six months preceding Saddam’s execution, our soldier grows close to Saddam, sharing the stale air of a bombed-out palace turned into a high-security prison whilst navigating the fine line separating fact and fiction,” the plot synopsis published by THR reads.
Barry Keoghan to re-team with Chernobyl director on Saddam Hussein movie
The film will mark a reunion between Keoghan and director Johan Renck, who helmed all of the acclaimed HBO series Chernobyl.
Keoghan was part of the main cast of the show, playing a young member of the Chernobyl liquidators – the civil and military personnel who were called upon to deal with the consequences of the 1986 nuclear disaster on the site of the event.
Describing Amo Saddam, Rench told THR: “In a weird way, it’s a prison movie, it’s a war movie and it’s kind of a horror movie almost. There’s a little bit of genre-bending going on.”
He also said the role of the Iraqi dictator in the film has not yet been cast.
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