In this 1998 film based on his paradigm-shifting book, Edward Said excavates and deconstructs deeply rooted Western perceptions of the Middle East as a mysterious land of exotics, villains, and terrorists, and argues that this caricatured cultural heritage continues to blind too many Europeans and Americans to the humanity of Arabs and Muslims, and the complexity and diversity of the region.
"That's the power of the discourse of Orientalism. If you're thinking about people and Islam, and about that part of the wold, those are the words you constantly have to use. To think past it, to go beyond it, not to use it, is virtually impossible, because there is no knowledge that isn't codified in this way about that part of the world." - Edward Said