Moon Knight director Mohamed Diab is back with another blunt criticism of DC Film’s handling of Egyptian representation. This time around, Diab is calling out the filmmakers behind 2020’s Wonder Woman 1984 for falling into the trap of “orientalism” with its depiction of Cairo in the sequel that re-teamed star Gal Gadot with director Patty Jenkins for a globe-trotting adventure.
According to the Egyptian writer/director, seeing his country portrayed “inauthentically” is a recurring problem in Hollywood that isn’t exclusive Wonder Woman, but it wasn’t great to see it continue. “It dehumanizes us,” he told SFX Magazine:
“You never see Cairo. You always see Jordan shot for Cairo, Morocco shot for Cairo, sometimes Spain shot for Cairo. This really angers us,” Diab said. “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.”
When giving his Moon Knight pitch to Marvel, Diab made it a point to emphasize the importance of portraying Egypt accurately in the Disney+ series. “There was definitely room to play [in Moon Knight] but keep it as authentic as possible, in the realm of being fantastical,” Diab said. “Even in the original comic books they did a great job of researching and trying to make Egypt authentic.”
In a previous interview, Diab called out Black Adam for squandering an opportunity to feature Egyptian talent by using a fictional Middle Eastern country that “was obviously meant to be in Egypt.” While Diab gets that the production was sticking to the source material, “Representation opportunities shouldn’t be wasted.”
(Via SFX Magazine)
