Egyptian director Mohamed Diab brands Wonder Woman 'a disgrace' due to one 'orientalist' scene
Egyptian director Mohamed Diab brands Wonder Woman 'a disgrace' due to one 'orientalist' scene
Wonder Woman has already been boycotted in the Arab world due to Israeli actor Gal Gadot's starring role.
2 min read
Gadot starred in both Wonder Woman films [Getty]
Arab filmmaker Ìýhas slammed the latest edition of the franchise over its depiction of Egypt.
The Egyptian director took issue with a sceneÌýinÌýEgypt, which he said fitted with orientalist stereotypes of the Middle East.
The Wonder Woman series has been banned or boycotted in parts of the Arab world due to its star, , pastÌýrole in the Israeli military.
"I remember seeing Wonder Woman 1984 and there was a big sequence in Egypt and it was a disgrace for us. You had a sheik – that doesn’t make any sense to us. Egypt looked like a country from the Middle Ages. It looked like the desert," DiabÌýtold SFX Magazine.
These misconceptions often relate to producers choosing locations outside Egypt, he said, with the country's bustling famedÌýmetropolises always neglected in favour of desert scenes and bazaars.
"You never see Cairo. You always see Jordan shot for Cairo, Morocco shot for Cairo, sometimes Spain shot for Cairo. This really angers us," he told the magazine.
Diab said these stale portrayals of the Arab world were in his mind when he went for a job asÌýan executive producerÌýforÌýthe Marvel series Moon Knight.
"In my pitch, there was a big part about Egypt, and how inauthentically it has been portrayed throughout Hollywood’s history," he said.
"It’s always exotic - we call it orientalism. It dehumanizes us. We are always naked, we are always sexy, we are always bad, we are always over the top."
Diab has faced criticism in the Arab world himself over his , named after the protagonist in the movie whoÌýis conceived from sperm is smuggled out of an Israeli prison.
Anger erupted over the film's premise that the Palestinian prisoner's sperm is switched with anÌýIsraeli guard's, with Amira later finding out who her real father is.
The subject sparked huge anger in the Arab world, particularly in the occupied Palestinian territories who said the storyline was not only inaccurate but also dangerous.
A number of countries, including Kuwait, also bannedÌý based on the Agatha Christie novel, due to Gadot's role in the film.
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