The face of evil just wants to be loved.

In 1990, before the First Gulf War, Mounir, an impressionable and sheltered Saddam Hussein body-double, loses his job and moves to Los Angeles in search of a new start. But once the real Saddam invades Kuwait and makes international headlines, Mounir learns the truth about the Iraqi dictator and vows to shed his Saddam persona forever. Unfortunately, he doesn't know how to be anyone else.

For years the world regarded Saddam Hussein with a combination of fear, disdain and fascination. However, there was a time when the average American had no idea who Saddam was or what he looked like. This transitional period in which the world was introduced to Saddam Hussein is where Mr. Sadman begins.

I was interested in this question: If the one thing that gives you meaning in life doesn’t exist anymore, what are you left with? In that respect, Mounir’s changed perspective of Saddam, and by extension himself, is what drives him to find happiness by any means necessary.

By holding a mirror up to the society in which we live, this fish-out-of-water story explores themes of alienation and examines the depths to which one will go just to feel loved. Mounir simply yearns for a sense of belonging, and as he traverses the Los Angeles terrain as an outsider, it is expressly his humanity that highlights the absurdity of the world around him.

With Saddam forever gone from the world’s stage, my goal was to tell a story about America that would be both meaningful and original by transforming a face so synonymous with evil and cruelty into one of innocence and empathy.