“I was incensed by the number of times I was told that the dialogue sounded ‘cooler’ in English,” Manal said. “It was disrespectful and I felt insulted.”
This is just one of the gems offered by actress Manal Issa about her issues with the Netflix title The Swimmers, which can be watched on the streaming platform these days, after premiering in Toronto and playing at various film festivals all around the world.
While the Lebanese thespian credits the film's director, the Welsh-Egyptian Sally El Hosaini for bringing more credibility to the project, in the article written by Egyptian critic Joseph Fahim for Middle East Eye, she still finds plenty of problems with The Swimmers. Among them, and perhaps most importantly, a Syrian story told in English, almost exclusively, with the two famous swimming sisters played by Lebanese actresses.
Fahim makes a fascinating and sadly true point about Orientalism and how Western film and TV executives lack the nuances necessary to tell Arab stories on the big and small screen -- and we agree.
To read the whole piece, check out the Middle East Eye website.
