Baddi Shouf

The movie “Baddi Shouf” or “I want to see” is a Lebanese movie and is a collaboration between Khalil Joreige and and Joanna Hadji Thomas. It illustrates the trip of a renowned french actress to Lebanon after the 2006 war.

The main character, Catherine Deneuve, is a french actress who came to Lebanon to film the country after it had been war-torn. She is strong, curious and independent. She is typically foreign with her hair and eye color, but she’s not the ” Western typical beauty” that is usually portrayed in Arab movies since she is a much older woman.(Karam, 2010, page. 123)

She is not involved in any sort of love story throughout the movie and it is important to note that the character has a very pride-worthy career behind her. This takes us back to the stereotypical representation of the fierce Western Woman who knows exactly what she wants and isn’t afraid to go and get it herself. Unfortunately though, most of these strong Western ladies are usually older than the ones portrayed as vixens, which makes one think about the relation between a western woman’s age and her place in the minds of Arabs.

The Danish Experience (Al Tajriba Danmarkia)

Screen shot from the moving showing the actress Nicole Saba

Nicole Saba, a Lebanese actress, plays the role of a Danish student who stays with an Egyptian family, consisting of a father and his 4 sons. Saba’s character is attractive and very sexual. She spoils the sons’ manners and teaches them about sex. This portrayal of the Danish girl is very stereotypical and shows that in the Arab world, western women are seen as sex kittens and femme fatales.

They are very experienced compared to the “innocent and pure” Arab population and even though the student was in Egypt for academic reasons, there’s absolutely no emphasis on her brains or her knowledge (other than on sex) in the entire movie. She’s merely seen as a sex object whose entire role in the movie is to please the male viewer: “Gender-based stereotypes undermine women’s capacity to lead, and that brings forth many serious challenges to women’s career achievement and advancement.” (Maggio, 2011. para. 2)