The son of a Ugandan dictator whose life is being revisited in a new Oscar-nominated performance says it's a compelling but inaccurate portrayal of the man he knew.

Jaffar Amin, a 40-year-old father of five, appeared on CTV's Canada AM from Uganda on Thursday to discuss the new film "The Last King of Scotland."  Forest Whittaker is nominated in the best actor category for his portrayal of Jaffar's father Idi Amin.

The dictator is estimated to have killed up to 500,000 people during his eight-year regime and his secret police force was known for torturing and killing Ugandans they believed to be political opponents.

"I loved the shots and the countryside. Quite a lot of authentic stuff in that sense. I find it questionable about some of the themes in the film though," Amin said.

Jaffar said the performance -- hotly tipped to win the Oscar -- failed to capture the tall, powerful man he remembers as his father.

Jaffar, who is writing a book about his father, has ended more than two decades of silence since the Amin family vowed not to speak to the media when they fled Uganda in 1979.

"As a family, I believe all of them are like, let sleeping dogs lie. But I'm the type who feels that I am going to spend the rest of my life trying to explain my father's legacy. And I've set that as my own personal goal or agenda, so to speak."

Though the film portrays a gentle, sensitive side to the dictator, Amin said it also portrays his father as insecure and hot tempered, often shouting and becoming angry -- traits he never saw in his father.

"He was the type of person who knew his worth, his authority. He was very comfortable with that. In the film, it looks like a very insecure person. That's not the type of person my father was," Amin said.

He said his father wore his heart on his sleeve, was genuine about his feelings and had a simple way of approaching issues and people.

"There's a sense of paranoia in this character that Whittaker is trying to throw across that doesn't fit in with what I remember of my father. And he wasn't the shouting type, he was definitely not that."

He also said Whittaker didn't get Amin's powerful stride right, nor his fashion sense, noting that he would never have worn an army uniform with a cowboy holster, as he is shown to have done in the film.

Amin doesn't deny the atrocities attributed to his father during his reign, but he hopes to show a more human side of the man who had seven official wives and 40 children -- of whom he is the 10th.

Across the country, Amin said, there is a sense of anticipation for the film that has drawn so much attention to Uganda, but coupled with that there are rumblings that the film is one-sided and perpetuates a stereotype that Africans are cruel savages.

Despite his reservations about the film, Amin has no hard feelings toward Whittaker.

"I wish him well, but remember, he was acting, a fictitious character, not my father."

With a report from CTV's Africa Bureau Chief Murray Oliver