Rabat – Over the past decade, Morocco has expanded its worldly presence through film and entertainment. Since Morocco opened its doors to Hollywood, there have been a vast array of connections between Moroccan and Western media.
There are a wide variety of Hollywood blockbuster films that have been filmed in Morocco, some including but not limited to Inception, The Bourne Ultimatum, Lawrence of Arabia, and James Bond Spectre. World-famous television series such as HBO’s Game of Thrones was filmed in the Moroccan cities of Ait-Ben-Haddou and Essaouira. The latest film currently in the works in Ouarzazate is Gladiator 2, which is expected to be released in 2024.
Morocco’s film industry is based in Ouarzazate, which has been labeled as “Africa’s Hollywood,” and is home to the Atlas Film Studio. It is also known as a very popular tourist destination, containing many historical and cultural landmarks such as the Kasbah Taourirt and the Ksar of Ait Ben-Haddou.
Orientalism and MENA Stereotypes
While Morocco’s increasing presence in the entertainment industry has supported Morocco’s tourism statistically, there have not been many efforts to reconstruct the Arab and Muslim stereotypes in Western films. All too frequently western media tends to blend Muslims and Arabs into one without making a distinction between race and religion.
A common example of this is Disney’s film Aladdin. The culture in Aladdin is an ambiguous combination of many Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian elements. Both the 1992 cartoon film and the 2022 live-action film create a skewed melting pot of Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian lifestyles, combining Sikh turbans, Mughal architecture, and a song vaguely labeled as “Arabian Nights,” into one cinematic fantasy located in the imaginary town of Agrabah.
However, while supporting such damaging and offensive stereotypes, the movie production simultaneously helped support Morocco’s global presence, as the 2019 live-action film was shot in the heart and center of Marrakech. Filmmakers and producers lean towards Morocco for its attractive and visually-pleasing urban scene and culture. Aladdin’s director Guy Ritchie states that the plan was “to make it mysterious, all these fairs in Marrakech have these wonderful, secretive alleyways for running around,” Entertainment Weekly quoted the director as saying.
Marrakech helped bring Ritchie’s cinematic dream to life. Yet, the 1992 version of Aladdin was intended to be based in Baghdad, Iraq, however, the plan never came to fruition “as a result of the overwhelming anti-Iraqi sentiments of the American population.”
This very approach to viewing the entirety of the Middle East as a unique place due to its “exoticness,” rather than its specific cultural elements, is how many films approach MENA-based sets. Palestinian – American writer Edward Said describes how this thought process is in relation to orientalism; “the Orient…[was] a place of romance, exotic beings…and…remarkable experiences.” It is a way for the non-Arab narrator to manipulate a fictional and shallow depiction of Arab life.
And while the West relies on Middle Eastern cities to create their high-budget award-winning films, they have not spent much time supporting a humanistic narrative of the Middle East. Moreover, since cinema is such a popular form of media, many viewers formulate their opinions of new cultures, values, and ideas based on what they view online – that is, the ambiguous representation of a multitude of Middle Eastern and North African cultures.
On the other side, non-Americans also subject American and Western culture to what they view through media and film: “The Moroccan public, most of whom cannot travel to the United States for financial and administrative reasons, is left to discover that part of the world through the ‘magic window’ the cinema and television.” Some regard all Americans as wealthy, violent, and hypersexual, author Mohamed Chtatou explained.
Breaking the MENA Stereotype
Nonetheless, there are some who are trying to break stereotypes regarding the Moroccan landscape. American actor and director John Slattery created a road film that depicted everyday Moroccan life without any intention to submerge it within a Hollywood narrative. There are also many new films and television series that have re-established the narrative for other forms of Middle Eastern life, politics, and culture: Casablanca Beats, Mo, Ramy. Even more so, the majority of these works are created by emerging Middle Eastern filmmakers, ultimately increasing minority representation in the entertainment industry.
Morocco’s film presence has expanded through its attractive filming and tourist locations, ultimately putting Morocco on the world map. However, at the end of the day, cinema is used as a form of escape, or an alternate and imaginative reality. The West has yet to include more realistic depictions of MENA life.
There is a new wave of American and Middle Eastern filmmakers who are actively working to dissolve this preconceived notion and to increase religious and cultural representation in the industry— only time will tell what the future of Moroccan-based and MENA-related cinema will look like.
