Backstabbing for Beginners (2018)

Corruption, Corruption everywhere. Terrific movie about inner working of UN aid program in Iraq prior to the 2003 US invasion. Top notch acting.

Everybody knew this was a corrupt operation - I was in Baghdad in 97 and met some UN observers one told me when she went to the warehouses to check and they were empty, her bosses said to her "shut up and take your money"....there were some highly moral people hi up in the UN though like Dennis Halliday, Hans von Sponeck and Jutta Burghardt, of WFP who like the other two resigned. A very shameful time for the UN and of course the people of Iraq who still suffer to this day. This story needs to be told and the film should be pushed but it wont be...........

This is a brief biopic of Michael Sullivan, a UN executive assistant in the Iraq Oil for Food program that exposed its massive corruption. The film only covers a few short years. He worked for Pasha (Ben Kingsley) who deals in moral relativism, in that he wants to keep a corrupt program alive as it helps some people. His reports were truthful, but he chose his truths carefully. The sandal ranks about number 4 is the common man's ability to understand what happened behind BCCI, Indonesiagate, and the 2008 Bank/mortgage crash. And for that reason much of the film was boring. Kickbacks and explosions. Internal drama. Guide: F-word. sex. No nudity.

Based upon a true storyMichael Sullivan (Theo James) takes a job at the United Nations with supervisor Pasha (Ben Kingsley) a United Nations Under Secretary who runs the Oil for Food Program and Michael eventually learns how "diplomacy" really works. Michael learns that there is corruption everywhere he looks, but goes along with Pasha's "don't rock the boat" philosophy because Pasha wants to keep his job and also to insure the funding continues for the Program. This is really NOT an entertaining story. It's more like a documentary about the corruption within the United Nations, and sometimes it's difficult to follow characters that come and go and we are not sure what they do except to say most are up to no good. All you really have to do is to follow Michael and his take on everything. Remember, he took the job to make a difference in the world, but is constrained by Pasha and his don't rock the boat philosophy. Michael's change of heart started with Michael befriending and defending Nashim (Belcim Bilgin) a Kurdish woman who fears for her life if she is found out to be Kurdish in Iraq. After the attack by the US on Iraq, Michael sees the opportunity to get the evidence for all the corruption that involves many well known companies and other countries who greased Saddam's hand. Ben Kingsley plays Pasha perfectly and we all know he is guilty and we wonder how Michael will expose him and all the rest. And this is where the major backstabbing takes place because Pasha is found guilty as well. Pasha admits to Michael later on that this was well-played by Michael. Notable: Jacqueline Bisset as Christina Dupre, who is opposed to the Food for Oil program because she knows the program is corrupt and all the food never gets to the people and worse the drugs that are supposed to help cure illness are so out of date many deaths come about because of that. Stay tuned to the end to see statements about what happened to everyone. An aside: To see more backstabbing incidents, watch any daytime Soap on TV. Ha !Again, not entertaining, but quite informative and this is a difficult story to follow, but Pasha does make it interesting. (7/10)Violence: Yes. Sex: No Nudity: No. Humor: Some. Language: Yes. Rating: B