Adil El Arbi may be of Moroccan descent but his film are actually as bad as the Flemish ones. Image is about a female journalist from Gent who wants to climb the media ladder by making a documentary about the Moroccan immigrants in Brussels and showing them in a different light. Unfortunately the film seems the confirm all the clichés people have about these people which makes them hard to like. If the main character Lahbib is supposed to be a criminal with a heart of gold then they failed miserably in fleshing out the last part. But it's not only the immigrants who come of as scumbags, the Flemish characters (the media people) are hardly better. Gene Berrevoets plays an aging news anchor who wants to keep his position no matter what. He, and the rest of the people who work in the fictional television station are just unlikable assholes. The film somehow seems to insinuate the media is the sole guilty party for the bad representation of the immigrants while the film itself just keeps confirming the racial stereotypes. The story is rather badly written, predictable, lacks an emotional core and characters viewers can identify with. I haven't seen 'Black', the 2015 film of the same director, but from what I've heard the director seems to be making the same mistakes again.
Image
(2014)
Only confirms stereotypical view of Morrocan immigrants instead of debunking it
19 January 2016