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THE DECOY

Drama - Development 2021

When a struggling actor is devastated and embarrassed by the public breakup with his girlfriend, which goes viral, he gets the opportunity to escape the humiliation when he receives an offer to play the Body Double for a relatively new African President. Little does he know, though, that he is jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

- Year of production
- 2021
- Genres
- Drama, Comedy
- Countries
- UNITED KINGDOM, SOUTH AFRICA, UGANDA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Budget
- 1 - 3 M$
- Duration
- 110 mn
- Writer(s)
- Moses MOSES SSEBANDEKE
- Producer(s)
- Alby JAMES (Dramatic Encounters), Shantelle ROCHESTER (Ida Rose)
- Synopsis
- Nelson, a 40-something actor, is down-on-his luck and is currently playing in a murder mystery in a restaurant. On top of this, he gets dumped by his girlfriend and in a moment of madness he goes down on his knees and begs her to take him back with many of the customers capturing the event on their phones. The videos go viral and catches the attention of a minister in the government of a fictional African country called Mpiindi, which is ruled by President Ngeye, the son of the country’s former powerful dictator. Enoch arranges to meet Nelson and Nelson is shown a photograph of the president which reveals he is the spitting image of the president. Enoch offers him a pile of money to go to Mpiindi to be his body double while they sort out their troubles. While hesitant at first, Nelson realises he can solve his mum’s money troubles and his own if he accepts and rationalises that at least he’ll have an opportunity to put his acting to the test.
  When he arrives in the country he is met by Barbara, the beautiful executive assistant of the president. The attraction is immediate, but she is businesslike and immediately starts preparing him for the task he faces. He receives his first shock, however, on the journey from the airport when it looks as if they are being hi-jacked by terrorists. It turns out this is the president himself, testing Nelson’s mettle. While the president himself is understanding of Nelson’s fear of capture, Barbara questions his backbone and Nelson sees his will have quite a battle to get her to love him.
  Nelson settles into the role and starts to make friends in the palace. He feels he is starting to fit in when one day he is really kidnapped and taken to a secret location. Once there, Nelson finds Enoch waiting and he introduces him to a former MI6 agent, Virgil. They reveal that the president is incompetent and corrupt that they want Nelson to help them collect the evidence of his crimes. Nelson now faces a decision. Who is he to believe? Who are the real enemies of the people? Can he find out the truth and thwart the crimes against the people? Nelson suddenly has a brainwave. He smiles and nods and shakes their hands warmly but as they clasp his shoulders and welcome him into their camp, he is thinking, “With Barbara’s help, they’ll soon find out how good an actor he is.”