Kevin Macdonald was all set to direct his first feature film, Shallow Grave, 13 years ago. But the backers of the dark comedy thriller, starring Ewan McGregor, wanted someone more experienced at the helm, so Macdonald was sacked by the producer — who also happened to be his own brother.
More than a decade later, the quietly spoken former public-school boy from Glasgow finally got the chance to direct a feature film, and The Last King of Scotland was a bigger challenge than Shallow Grave could ever have been.
Macdonald filmed in a country where petrol was stolen from unattended vehicles, which then had to be pushed into scenes. He worked with a star, Forest Whitaker, who stayed in character as the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin even when he was off camera. And, in an act of sibling forgiveness, he employed his brother, Andrew, who gave him his marching orders back in 1993.
“Filming in Uganda and filming with Forest were challenges,” Macdonald concedes, but the end result was worth it. The film has attracted enthusiastic reviews in America, where it was released last year, and established itself as a serious awards contender. Whitaker is favourite for the best actor Oscar for his performance as the charismatic but brutal despot. The film has also been a big boost for James McAvoy, the rising Scottish star, who plays Amin’s doctor.
In between Shallow Grave and The Last King of Scotland, Macdonald was diverted into documentary- making, beginning with an amusing film about the making of Shallow Grave, in which he relentlessly pursues and interrogates his brother as if he were a Nazi war criminal.
Nobody could have predicted the extent to which Macdonald would revitalise the medium, winning an Oscar for One Day in September (1999), about the terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympics, and turning a film on mountaineering, Touching the Void (2003), into Britain’s highest-grossing documentary.
The 39-year-old film-maker, who is married to the art director Tatiana Lund, busily promoted The Last King of Scotland ahead of its release last Friday. He is also editing a new documentary on the Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and enjoying being a father to his baby son. “It’s been a bit too hectic,” Macdonald says, when we finally get the chance to talk after several postponements.
The Last King of Scotland is based on Giles Foden’s novel, in which a young Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, attends Amin after a road accident and is appointed as his personal physician. He is seduced by Amin’s charm and the presidential lifestyle, but finds himself increasingly uncomfortable as events unfold under the dictator’s rule.
The doctor is a fictional character, but the dictator was all too real. Amin seized power in Uganda in 1971 and was responsible for up to 500,000 deaths before being forced into exile eight years later. He had a curious affinity for Scotland, wearing the kilt and naming his sons Campbell, McLaren, McKenzie and Mackintosh. He gave himself a host of titles that included Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea and, more specifically, King of Scotland.
Macdonald was attracted by Amin’s notion of himself as a latter-day Bonnie Prince Charlie, just waiting for the Scottish people to invite him to lead them in battle against the English, and by the combination of charm and homicidal menace behind the comic-opera caricature of a bloated buffoon.
“The two things going together make him a fascinating character,” says Macdonald, whose grandfather was Emeric Pressburger, one half of the legendary Powell and Pressburger film-making team that made such classics as The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death.
In the movie, Amin tells Garrigan that if he was not Ugandan he would like to be Scottish. Apart from a brief opening episode in Scotland, Macdonald shot the film on location and found people surprisingly ambivalent about Amin. “He stood up for Ugandan culture,” Macdonald says. “He spent a lot on education. He made sure that schoolchildren were taught in tribal languages. He stood up to the British.”
Macdonald feels local input and authentic locations outweighed the lack of facilities and services for visiting film crews. “We were in a country which has undergone several civil wars, and where roads are pretty bloody awful and there are very few people who have any interest in old things, including old cars.
“Through private adverts we tracked down people who had old cars. Often they would turn up and they really weren’t roadworthy or people would siphon off the petrol. If the British think they have got reason to complain about petrol prices, they should go to Uganda.”
Cars had to be pushed into shot or jump-started. Macdonald recalls: “James had a very funny scene where he had to get out of the car, push the car, get it started with about 10 other members of the crew, and then run round and jump into the back — and the camera was rolling for a take.”
It seems there would have been little chance of Whitaker mucking in like that. “Forest, as it turned out, is quite an extreme method actor. He did literally take on elements of Amin’s character and retain them throughout the shoot.
“He wanted to eat only the kind of food Amin would eat. He didn’t like mixing with the crew and talking any sort of gossip. He wanted to be with Ugandans. He learnt to play the accordion. He learnt Swahili. He went through an awful lot as a person,” Macdonald says.
One senses that the actor may also have put the production team through an awful lot, though Macdonald adds that he deserves every award going.
After completing My Enemy’s Enemy, the documentary about the war criminal Barbie he is making for Channel 4, Macdonald’s next film might bring him back to Scotland. He is working with Duncan Kenworthy, the producer of Four Weddings and a Funeral and brother Andrew’s partner in DNA Films, on plans to adapt The Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff’s novel about the mysterious disappearance of a Roman legion in ancient Scotland.
While Macdonald was reinvigorating the documentary, his brother was establishing himself as one of Britain’s top producers, with films such as Trainspotting and, more recently, The History Boys. But the director insists there is no rivalry between them.
“We have pretty much completely different interests within the film industry,” he says. “I don’t think he would be interested in documentary and I wouldn’t be interested in running a company with a slate of films. I couldn’t think of anything worse.”
The Last King of Scotland is on general release
