The Dictator 2009

For years, the fictional Republic of Wadiya, located in the Horn of Africa, has been ruled by Omar Aladeen, the dictator, until his death opens a path for his son to take over. Twenty years into his reign, Hassan Hosny appears as Omar Aladeen’s successor, Admiral-General Haffaz Aladeen, a leader who surrounds himself with female bodyguards, sponsors terrorism, and even rewrites parts of the Wadiyan dictionary to honor his name. He also works on developing nuclear weapons with the aim of using them against Israel, and he famously refuses to sell Wadiya’s oil fields, breaking a promise he once made to Omar. When the United Nations Security Council decides to intervene militarily, Aladeen makes a bold journey to the UN Headquarters in New York City to address the council in person.

Shortly after his arrival, Aladeen is kidnapped by Clayton, a hitman hired by Tamir Mafraad, his uncle who was bypassed as successor. Tamir then sows chaos by replacing Aladeen with a dim-witted decoy, a shepherd named Efawadh, hoping to manipulate the country into signing a democratizing document that would open the oil fields to foreign interests. Aladeen escapes when Clayton accidentally burns himself during a failed torture attempt. When Clayton’s burned corpse is discovered, Tamir mistakes Aladeen for dead. Meanwhile, Aladeen’s disguise frays as Clayton’s beard is shaved off, making him nearly unrecognizable.

Wandering through New York City in civilian clothes, Aladeen assumes the alias “Allison Burgers” and meets Zoey, a human rights activist who offers him a job at her progressive, cooperative community. He initially declines, then runs into Nadal, the former head of Wadiya’s nuclear program, whom Aladeen had believed he had executed. Nadal agrees to help him regain control of the country, on one condition: that Aladeen reinstates Nadal as head of the nuclear program. Aladeen also crosses into New York’s Little Wadiya, a district filled with refugees from his own regime, and ends up at Death to Aladeen Restaurant, a venue run by people he once ordered executed. A failed attempt to cover his identity leads to accusations that he is an “Aladeen sympathizer,” but Nadal steps in and reveals a hard truth: the supposed executions were replaced with exile to the United States, and the men who carried them out have become a resistance. Nadal consenting to help comes with the demand that Aladeen place Nadal back in charge of the nuclear program.

As Aladeen grows closer to Zoey and even falls in love with her, he begins to help her business succeed, all while trying to project a charismatic, almost cult-like influence around her. His increasingly controlling tendencies become evident as he imposes strict schedules and uses manipulative tactics to secure positive public reviews. The romance strains when Aladeen finally reveals his true identity to Zoey; she cannot love a man who has brutalized his own people. After a rebirth of sorts—securing a new beard taken from a corpse—Aladeen ziplines into a hotel, where Efawadh has been kept in the dark about the real situation. At the signing ceremony, Aladeen tears up Tamir’s document in front of the media and delivers a passionate speech praising the virtues of dictatorship. Yet, upon spotting Zoey in the crowd, he declares his love and vows to democratize Wadiya and to open up the oil fields in a way that benefits the people. Tamir’s rage leads him to fire on Aladeen, but Efawadh saves him, taking a blow to the head in the process, and Tamir is eventually arrested.

A year later, Wadiya claims its first democratic elections, thirty years after independence. The elections are heavily rigged in Aladeen’s favor, now adding the title “President-Prime Minister” to his former rank of Admiral-General. He uses tanks to force citizens into voting lines, Nadal is reinstated, and Zoey reveals that she is pregnant with their child. In a moment that highlights the country’s paradoxes, Aladeen quips about the future child, asking whether the baby will be a boy or an abortion, underscoring the bizarre mix of power, politics, and personal ambition that defines his rule.