I watched the 7th episode of Lost again and i have a bit of criticism about the way the dudes over at Lost imagined Tunisia to be!
It's amazing that they got the car license plate correct, although the car series no. 207 hasn't existed yet! They've only reached series no. 136. But that's OK, not a biggie.
Then there's the issue of the accent, which they totally messed up!
The men weren't talking Tunisian Arabic! Maybe the doctor, Hajer, (whose name is a girls name, by the way) used a few Tunisian words.
As for the biggest mistake of all, which is the head dress of the men who picked up Lock in their pickup ... they were more Jordanian or Saudi than Tunisians!
Let's put aside the accent, they were wearing Kuffiyehs! Red, checkered Kuffiyehs!
Kuffiyehs are the traditional head dress in both The Middle East and the Gulf.
In Tunisia and North Africa, the men wear something called a 'Shashieh' which is some sort of hat, that's usually red.
There's another equally big mistake, which is the hospital where Lock was admitted.
People! They're in 2007! Such a shabby and horrible shack of a hospital hasn't existed since before WWI!
It's true, it's a hospital in the middle of nowhere in the desert, but believe me i know when i say that there are no such hospitals in Tunisia, not even in the desert!
How do i know, I live in Tunisia!
The Lost dudes, should have checked their info before using Kuffiyehs and portraying the hospital as a dump!
In fact Tunisia has gotten one of the most modern health infrastructure in the region. Patients from foreign nations go there for not only for plastic surgery for for serious health conditions. Lost really got lost this time.
Eric Di Costa
Dude, I love this article ...
I wanted to write something similar but didn't have enough ideas ...
thanks for the article !
I am from Libnan and I've never been to Tunis, but when I saw this episode and the previous episode that included "Tunis" I was thinking how LOST overgeneralized and assumed all Arabs look like this... LOL.... their accents were not even close to the Tunisian accent.... WOW... way to go directors!
You need to come to Tunisia to know what it' looks like! Tunisia has the most beautifull landscape in the world like Djerba, Sousse, Hammamet... people come from all over the world to visit it!
me too i lol alot when i watch the epi actully they see us all arab like that way i'm from egypt and they always show camels and pyramied it became something very funny and silly they don't even have any idea about ppl in the middel east
I know! I was so proud that they filmed in Tunisia but I was like wtf??!!I didn't recognize any of the Tunisia I know.So thx for the article cuz I thought about writing smth similar but never did! but still LOST rocks!!
wow what is there to be surprised about? it's a FICTIONAL show, don't get offended when they show unrealistic things. get ova it
LOL i saw a few episodes with Toezeur and Medinine in, i was just in shock that Tunisia was mentioned on the biggest show around..its a shame about the mistakes they made, but i think you got Iraq confused with Tunisia..cos they went between both countries.
Im just glad my country was mentioned
TUNISIAN FOREVER :)
I like this article too.
I've seen this in other hollywood movies, they go to morocco for example and show men wearing the robes that people from the khalij would wear. lol come on you try explaining this too people from the U.S.....doesn't happen oh welll its funny too watch.
@ um
What about showing the US in bad image in an Arabic series or movie, i dont think you will accept this ... besides, i believe the director of lost did that on purpose since how come they were able to get a detail of a car license plate but not the country itself, that was soooooo stupid!!! however typical!
It's definitely not a surprise to see them misrepresent an arab country like this...happens all the time in hollywood! its such a shame that the arab world is portrayed in such a way, especially considering the american society is one of the most ignorant with regards to the arab world, but on the other hand we cant just rely on an american to portray a more realistic image of arabs, arab americans have to participate too.
I really like this article and all of your responds.
I have been in your beutiful country Tunesia several times and was thinking the exact same!
It's a shame, but Hollywood does it all the time. They see themselves as the center of the world, all other countries are undeveloped in their minds.
I live in Europe, and it's the same here, when they make films about countries in Europe. (Eg. UK people with bowler hats and umbrellas, French with cigarettes and little french hats, germans are always nazies and so on).
Europe and a lot of other places are much more technological advanced than USA in almost every way, but they could never film that, the audience would think it's to fictional :-)
Most of the americans never come outside USA, and when they do, they see Paris in 3 hours and the rest of Europe in the next 3 days. Who can blame them for being ignorants?
"Europe and a lot of other places are much more technological advanced than USA in almost every way, but they could never film that, the audience would think it's to fictional :-)"
Thanks for commenting on a site with its server hosted in the US on an article about an AMERICAN show about how the US has such low technology ;)
It seems our film/TV production as well as computer engineering is pretty top-notch! Ever heard of Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Myspace, etc? All created and run by Americans. So the next time you want to call people ignorants (your incorrect spelling) you might want to think a little harder. I know thinking is hard for you 3anjad, but at least try!
to lostmania,
Lostmania never claimed that the U.S does not have advanced technology, she just said that Europe's better....
I know reading carefully is hard for you 3anja, but at least try!
To Lostmania, you'd be surprised to check how many computer engineers in the US are actually American. How many developers of innovations are.
Besides Lostmania seems to have referred to general infrastructure/technological equipment as an overall perspective. You might want to compare the NYC subway with the Viennese one, for example, and you'll see what s/he is referring to. You might compare the average US hospital to an average Arab or European hospital, and you'll know what s/he is talking about.
The US is not that advanced on average as it likes to believe it is. Americans regularly ridicule themselves when explaining to Arab or European (or both) visitors how a fridge works, or what Google is.
Self-perception and reality of average technological development and knowledge show a wide gap here.
And everything Lostmania said on how US American movies and TV series consistently portray other parts of the world, even well developed areas, as substandard relative to the US is right on.
I did not see Lost, but I am not surprised of how pathetically they apparently portrayed Tunisia.
Particularly the Maghreb, its language, dress, customs are always confused with the Gulf or Palestine in US movies, at least to my perception.