Hollywood in Morocco: How International Films Represent Morocco and Moroccans

From the wartime romance of the classic Casablanca to the intense desert escapades in Prison Break’s final season, Morocco has long been one of Hollywood’s favorite filming locations. But what makes this country the ultimate cinematic destination?

Directors like Alejandro González Iñárritu, Ridley Scott, and Stephen Sommers, among many others, have chosen Morocco as one of their preferred destinations for shooting movies. The country’s wide variety of landscapes, from the sandy deserts featured in films like Kingdom of Heaven or The Mummy, to the exotic villages built at the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, such as the village in Babel, Ait Ben Hadou and the desert of Ouarzazate perfectly align with the filmmakers’ imagination. These places are undoubtedly some of the driving forces that attract film directors to shoot their movies in Morocco, alongside the logistical facilitation, material support, and economic help that Morocco offers to them.

For all these factors, in April 2015, The Guardian ranked Morocco as the second-best destination for movie makers, right after Vancouver.

Morocco and Moroccans: A Question of Representation

It is true that the Moroccan film industry has been thriving for years. This success, however, does not make the country nor its people a favored subject for Hollywood directors. Most movies filmed in Morocco rarely represent the country or its people. More often than not, they are set to tell the story of other Arab countries such as Egypt, Iraq, or Syria. This phenomenon reminds us of the orientalist lens from which Americans view Arabs. For them, all Arabs are alike. They share the same culture, beliefs, and even the same ways of thinking. Thus, Morocco is instead transformed into Agrabah, an imagined perception of Arab countries and their people. Usually, this portrayal is negative, casting Arabs as mere objects of desire and curiosity.

The American perception of Morocco and Moroccans did not emerge from a vacuum; rather, their first impressions were shaped by French literature. Americans adopted the colonial degrading image of Moroccans created by the French and integrated it into their cinema. The following quote captures the essence of the situation:

“Maghreb was already familiar to many Americans via a rich tradition of European Orientalism, from Delacroix and Ingres to Matisse in painting, from Flaubert and Fromentin to Pierre Loti, Gide and Camus in literature, and from Louis Philippe, Napoléon III, and General Bugeaud to Lyautey and Giraud in political history. Indeed, the region was not generally known in the United States as the Maghreb at all, but as French North Africa until the independence movements of the mid-1950s.”

Edwards, B. T

From Exotic to Savages: Hollywood’s Distorted Portrayal of Moroccans

The various representations of Moroccans as uncivilized and savage have occurred in Hollywood throughout its existence. These fallacious conceptions of Moroccan society are presented to the American audience in multiple films:

○ Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

The movie tells the story of an American white couple whose son is kidnapped by international criminals. The first scene locates the family in a bus traveling from Casablanca to Marrakech. During this journey, the couple’s child pulls out the veil of a Moroccan woman; as a reaction, the woman’s husband gets angry and threatens to kill the child. This scene showcases Moroccans as savages and ruthless people.

○ Bertolucci's The Sheltering Sky (1990)

The film follows a couple’s journey to North Africa in the hope of rekindling their marriage, but their attempt fails because of this new environment. This movie describes the potential dangers of venturing into Morocco and presents it as a dangerous and mysterious place.

○ Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel (2006)

The movie intertwines multiple storylines, one of which follows a tragic incident in rural Morocco where two boys accidentally shoot an American tourist. The depiction of the Moroccan family and their living conditions heavily leans on stereotypes of rural poverty, primitivism, and violence. The media portrayal of Moroccans as dangerous and suspicious further reinforces negative and one-dimensional narratives about the country.

○ Susannah Grant’s Lonely Planet (2024)

The movie revolves around a writer who travels to Morocco, where she meets a younger man and falls in love with him. The scenery in this movie presents Morocco as a backward and underdeveloped country, with scenes showing herded sheep that block the road, palm groves, men who dance by the road, rocky desert, animal-drawn carts, and camels. This representation lacks any sign of a modern Morocco, which implies that all these features reflect only the Orientalist narrative.

The General Consequence of Stereotyping on the Perception of Morocco

• The different representations of Moroccans in multiple movies have forever altered how Americans perceive them. Naturally, this constructed version that exists only in their imagination impacts how they interact with Moroccan locals when they visit. Their behavior often becomes racist and bigoted toward the people living in Morocco. Such reactions can be harmful and dangerous. This emphasizes the need to advocate for better representation in the media, not just for Moroccans, but for all marginalized groups.

“The history of tourism in Morocco is one of colonialism, forced assimilation, and appropriation. From the early days of the French protectorate to modern-day Marrakesh, developments in the industry are ongoing—the Moroccan government’s “Vision 2020” anticipates a whopping 20 million tourists by the beginning of the next decade. It is the follow-up to “Vision 2010”, which reached its goal of over 10 million tourists in 2016 (Kingdom of Morocco Ministry of Tourism, 2017). With the number of visitors per year on a steady incline and investments being made by both the state as well as private companies, Morocco’s online presence has gained significant notoriety.”

Lily P. Ayau

Morocco is such a diverse and fascinating country, full of interesting people and places. However, the way it is represented in the media, especially in movies, strips it of any kind of originality or depth and reduces it to an empty shell that filmmakers fill with degrading stereotypes. These portrayals not only destroy the identity of the Moroccan people but also create hateful conduct in those unfamiliar with Morocco, which can harm and put Moroccans in danger. For this reason, individuals should strive for and demand better representations. But, how can Morocco be represented in a better light? And is Hollywood capable of achieving better representations of various cultures in the future?

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