Goat's Life.. Is a country and a people judged by individuals?

"The film does not intend to offend any country, people, society or race," is how the makers of "Goat's Life" opened their cinematic work, in what appears to be an attempt to avoid the controversy surrounding the film. However, this introduction did not succeed in keeping the work and its makers away from controversy, as the film provoked the ire of many Arabs and Saudis.

Cruelty in judging a people through an individual The film tells the story of an Indian worker named "Najeeb" who arrived in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the early nineties, only to find himself at the mercy of a fictitious sponsor, who took him to the desert, on a journey that lasted for three years before he escaped.

Some believe that even if this story may have actually happened, the way it was presented carried a lot of cruelty towards an entire people. Emirati academic and religious affairs advisor “Waseem Youssef” commented on the controversy surrounding the film, saying: “First of all, if the film was a true story, if we came to judge the behavior of individuals on countries, this would be a disaster. We can produce a film about the lives of two British tourists who went with his wife to India and his wife was raped in front of her husband by 10 Indians. This is a true story, even Indian newspapers reported this matter. We can produce a film saying the life of a tourist... but we cannot judge the 10 people on India, which has a population of 1.4 billion. Likewise, we cannot judge a man, if the story is true, on a country with a population of 40 million.” He continued, saying: “Saudi Arabia has a population of 40 million, not all of them are angels, hypothetically, and this is the case in any country, but it does not mean that I take a person and judge a country, a country’s services, a country’s leadership, and a country’s dealings, and say, ‘Look at what the country is doing.’”

Criticism of stereotyping of Arab countries The stereotypical portrayal of Arab countries, their nature and expected scenes has always drawn criticism from international film companies, especially Hollywood. According to critics, the film “Goat’s Life” has fallen into the trap of generalizations and prejudices. The Saudi art critic and head of the arts and culture section at Al-Riyadh newspaper, Abdul Rahman Al-Nasser, says that Saudi Arabia’s positive image in the world today is clearer, and it is not easy or simple to distort it. In contrast to this film that tells the story of one person, there are millions of communities who live and work in Saudi Arabia and share their lives with Saudi society, and some of them even love and respect Saudi Arabia more than their home countries.

Some considered the way this film was presented at a time when Saudi Arabia has become one of the world's leading countries in development and modernization to be a deliberate distortion of the great achievements made by the Kingdom.

Some Indians in the Kingdom also commented on the film, as a video clip of an Indian young man speaking Arabic went viral, saying: “Have you seen this film? ‘ Goat Life ’. I don’t know if the story is true or not, but I will share my experience as an Indian who spent his childhood in Saudi Arabia. I learned that Saudis are very generous, and I don’t think any expatriates working in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf support this film.” He concluded by saying: “Seeing is not like hearing, and most of the developments in Kerala are thanks to the Saudis and Gulf people, so we are always indebted to the Gulf people.”