Saddam Hussein used Oliver Reed and a James Bond director to tell Iraq’s story – but who tells it now?

From the beginning of his brutal reign in Iraq, Saddam Hussein could claim an unusual credit: film producer. After Saddam became president in 1979, his cousin played him in The Long Days. The film dramatised his role in a failed 1959 attempt to assassinate Iraq’s then-prime minister, Abdul-Karim Qasim. The film presented the new dictator as a hero. A few...