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‘Dune 2’ Criticized for Lack of Middle Eastern and North African Inclusion and Influences: ‘A Missed Opportunity’
"Dune: Part Two" is being criticized by film professionals and scholars for its lack of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) inclusion.
“From the use of beads and prostration in prayers by the Fremen, to the almost-Arabic language, phrases pulled from religious texts and the wearing of veils, it felt like ‘Dune’ takes a heavy amount of inspiration from Islam, Middle Eastern and North African cultures yet simultaneously erases us from screen,” she writes. Dolan adds that while Yacoub’s role is commendable in “Dune: Part Two,” the character falls into the unfortunate “native fixer” or “noble savage” trope by sacrificing herself to help Paul Atreides and the Fremen escape the Harkonnen. In a recent New Yorker piece, Manvir Singh, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis, breaks down how Herbert’s novel was filled with Arabic, yet the films’ linguist David J. Peterson expunged much of that from the Fremen’s language of Chakobsa for “believability.”
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