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Hania A.M. Nashef deposited Against Stereotypical Representations: On young Saudi directors on MLA Commons 3 months, 1 week ago
In his writing, Cultural theorist Stuart Hall has often argued that an image or a set of images has the capability of condensing a number of attributes into a single picture, producing a misleading representation of what other people and cultures are like. As a result, multiple stories evolve into the one story that is told repeatedly and usually by those in power. Monochrome and oversimplified representations of both people and place are not only often created and reinforced by dominant Western media but the practice of creating them continues to this day, resulting in the silencing of other potential stories. This paper, which will discuss Abdulelah Alqurashi’s Roll’em (2019), Shahad Ameen’s Scales (2019), Haifaa Al-Mansour’s The Perfect Candidate (2016) and Wadjda (2012) and Mahmoud Sabbagh’s Barakah Meets Barakah (2017), argues how these recent Saudi films challenge the prevalent media image and provide a counter-narrative to dominant stories.