Cinema
The Return of the Repressed
Felipe Galvez Haberle’s “The Settlers” (“Los Colonos”) is anything but a typical Western. Utterly devoid of heroism or romance, it explores a dark chapter in Chile’s history, deconstructing not only the morality of the gunslingers but also the historical setting in which they operated.
The Goat Life
The film adaptation of a popular Malayalam-language novel has sparked an unexpected controversy in Saudi Arabia, as many think it shows the country in an unfair light. The story follows a migrant from India who ends up in slave-like conditions at a goat farm.
Horror Films Help Pakistanis Process Modern-Day Anxieties
In recent times, both Pakistani cinema and TV have been experimenting with horror, trying to address the complexities of living in modern-day Pakistan, such as the rising discourse about feminism, the fear of Western influences, the evolution of the family system, and the role of religion in everyday life.
Netflix’s Perfect Strangers Has More Truth in It Than Its Critics Allow
It creates a kind of societal schizophrenia in which people are publicly outraged over artists’ failure to adhere to the moral imperatives of their faith and cultural values but Muslim countries lead the world in Google searches for porn.
Frank Herbert, the Republican Salafist
Taking Frank Herbert’s ideology seriously offers a more precise, if uncomfortable, explanation of how he leaned conservative. It also exposes the American Right’s troublesome alignments with Islamic thought.
On the Screen, Libyans Learned About Everything but Themselves
From California to Cairo, none of the films that featured my country, Libya, could step out of an Orientalist vision of camels, belly dancers, an endless desert and, of course, our iconic “Brother Leader.”