In The Idiot, Dostoyevsky writes about a man condemned to death, whose greatest torment is knowing for certain that he is going to die. In an hour, and then in 10 minutes, and then in half a minute, and then, at that very moment, his soul would leave his body and he would cease to be a man. The worst part was that it was bound to happen.

It’s the story that immediately came to mind after I recently saw the mobile-phone camera recording of Saddam Hussein’s execution on the first day of the Muslim Eid. Seeing and hearing the man’s final moments in life as he is handled by a group of militiamen in balaclavas is like watching a Ku Klux Klan gang on a lynching mission.

I recently saw the film Pierrepoint (2005), about Britain’s most prolific hangman. Between 1934 and 1956, he executed more than 400 men and women. Among them were Ruth Ellis (the last woman to be hanged in Britain), Timothy Evans (wrongly convicted of murdering his daughter) and John Christie (who really did kill Evans’ daughter). He hanged large numbers of Nazi war criminals convicted at the Nuremberg Trials, including Josef Kramer (better known as the Beast of Belsen) and Irma Grese of Auschwitz fame, the cruelest female concentration camp guard of them all. Kramer and Grese were among 13 he executed in just one day.

Had Pierrepoint still been alive, he could have given some professional hanging advice to Hussein’s executioners as well as to those who botched the execution of his half-brother just weeks later. Just a few pointers on how the knot should always be under the angle of the left jaw. If the same knot is on the right-hand side, it comes back behind the neck, throwing it forward, which results in strangulation. If it’s on the left side it ends up in front, throws the chin back and breaks the spinal cord.

At once repulsive yet darkly fascinating, executions are a recurrent theme on the big screen. In French Director Robert Enrico’s An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge (based on Ambrose Bierce’s short story, written in 1891), a man is sentenced to death by the Confederate Army and hung from the side of a bridge. Far from dying, the rope snaps and the man falls into the river below. He manages to free himself and swims downstream, escaping to safety. He runs through the woods and finally reaches home; but as his wife comes out to meet him and her arms go around him, his neck snaps at the end of the rope.

The short story has become famous for the twist in the tale, the man’s near-miraculous escape explained as hallucinations occurring in the moments before his death.

What most people may not know is that this film (28 minutes long) was originally a segment of an anthology film Au Coeur de la Vie (In the Midst of Life, 1961), adapted from three Bierce short stories. Sadly, the rest of Au Coeur de la Vie appears to have been lost, but Enrico’s solo segment went on to win an Academy Award for best short film in 1964.

In the film I Want to Live (1958), Susan Hayward gave an Oscar-winning performance with her portrayal of Barbara Graham, a real-life small-time West-coast crook, drug addict and prostitute who was framed for murder and executed in 1955. Upon entering the gas chamber, Hayward’s Graham is advised by her San Quentin executioner to count to 10 and take a deep breath when she hears the pellets drop, assuring her, “It’s easier that way.”

To which Graham cynically responded: “How do you know?” et

In a career that has spanned nearly 30 years, Mohamed Khan has helmed some of the nation’s most memorable films — and commanded some of the most prominent actors in the region. A regular Egypt Today columnist, he may be reached on his personal email at mokh42@gmail.com.