Meg Smaker's 'Jihad Rehab' about a detention facility in Saudi Arabia is imperfect. But attempts to squash it are not a solution to Muslim underrepresentation.
Ramy Youssef and Mahershala Ali discuss Season 2 of Hulu series “Ramy” and Hollywood’s long neglect of Muslim stories and characters.There are far more egregious, laughable and dangerous depictions of Muslims and Middle Easterners out there to challenge, after all. Tie on a blindfold and throw a dart at a list of 21st century movies and you’ll hit a gross misrepresentation: “The Hurt Locker,” “,” “Wonder Woman 1984.” We’ve been handy villains, victims and dispensable sidekicks.
Meg Smaker, director of “Jihad Rehab,” an official selection of the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. It may be the stickiest argument in culture today: After hundreds of years’ worth of misrepresentation, creators of color and other artists from marginalized groups have rightfully begun to demand ownership of their own narratives, correcting a history of their peoples being viewed through a white lens.