2007, Iraq.  The insurgency grabs the headlines. But rumours have been filtering out about shadowy goings-on beneath the news: what thousands of testosterone-filled, steroid-fuelled, men of the official armies and private military contractors get up to at night in the Green Zone.

US forces’ Freedom Radio broadcasts that a British war profiteer is running an illegal club, the Babes of Baghdad, whose founding principle is to break the US Army’s General Order Number One in Iraq: no alcohol, no fornication, no narcotics and no bringing the military into disrepute.

Investigative TV programme Underbelly goes in search of the club, whose signature video and song, General Order Number One, offers eye-popping proof of the debauchery that grips the venue. Priggish Captain Cannon of the US Military Police pledges on air that he will do everything to locate and destroy the club.

The DJ asks on air if La Vaca Loca, a Mexican restaurant in the Green Zone, is the front for the club. It is run by a dishonorably discharged British soldier, Rusty Pouch (whose main business is a security firm). His partner in the restaurant, the charming but single-minded Ana Marija Jelic, is whispered to be the club madam.

Discovering a secret entrance via the restaurant’s frozen meat section, the Underbelly team stumble into the club. It is pumping on Saddam Night, where his death is played out each week in a decadent song and dance routine, complete with sexy female executioners and a blistering attack on Western hypocrisy as “Saddam” sings his last.

Ana Marija turns out to be the artistic brains of the club, conveying a “make love, not war” message through numbers that reframe the grim realities of occupation as farce and satire. Lynndie England, the Abu Ghraib torturer, leads a circus to match anything from Rocky Horror.

Rusty’s prime interest is in his captive Babes making money by doing tricks to earn their passports back and their passage home. He is savvy enough to let the barman pull in Iraqi men as well as Americans to perform gay numbers on Manorama night like Summer Camp: I-raq. However, his abuse of head waiter Walid goads the man to join the resistance who plan to bomb the venue.

Although Rusty manages to corrupt and co-opt Capt. Cannon onto their new venture in Afghanistan, called Kuties of Kabul, the Baghdad club’s days are numbered and the authorities close in.

Walid’s bomb plot is abandoned, however, when he falls in love with one of the Ukrainian showgirls. “Madam” Ana-Marija turns a new leaf and proclaims a women’s sanctuary on her share of the premises, while Rusty succumbs to his sentimental side and begins an animal sanctuary on the other side. No one will ever be the same again after the Babes of Baghdad club.

 

Written and Directed by  Stuart Urban
Producer  Alan Jay
Composer Chris Elliott
Choreographer Les Child
Cinematography Sam McCurdy BSC, Shane Daly, Simon Lykke,
Scott Peters, Stuart Urban
Costume Designer Chas Hines
Production Designer Malin Lindholm
Editors Fernando Ruiz, Gary Scullion
Sound Designer David Kennedy
Line Producer Rosa Russo

Special Effects Designer Paul McGuinness
Colorist Dado Valentic
Animation Peter Dobes, Gary Scullion  
3D UNIT Consultant  Dado Valentic
Editor 3D Davorin Tomsic - Stroo   
Vocals  Nick Vadasz , Chris Elliott, Melanie Garside

CAST (in alphabetical order)

Walid Lewis Alsamari
Saddam David Bailie
Ana Marija Dana Bezanov
Leyla Farah Khamou
Amina Noor Khamou
Vicar of Liquor Toby MacDonald
DJ Sherry Honey Regine Mont-Louis
Lynddie England Alexa Mason
Captain Cannon Will Stoney
Leica Leah Urban
Rusty Pouch Nick Vadasz
Svetlana Katrina Vasilieva
Suha Elif Yesil
Babes Louisa Drake, Kirsty Jones, Justine McLucas,
Jasmine Takacs, Charlotte E. Talbot, Katrina Vasilieva
Dancers Leon Alderton, Marcos José, Blazej Klepchavek,
Blake Scott, Douglas Smith,  Anthony Wren

Saddam Clones Joao Correia, Aliki Katriou, David Urban
American Soldiers Joao Correia, Iona Debarge, Peter DobesChris Fretwell,
Kasim Golge, Aliki Katriou, Chris Kazolides, Jason Lau, 
Robin Patterson, David Urban
Chef Charaffedine Bouzir

Genre Short, Mockumentary, Musical
Date of completion January 2010
Duration 23 min
Shooting  format HD
Print details Colour, 16:9
Sound Dolby SR
Spoken languages English, Serbian, Arabic

DOWNLOAD PRESSBOOK